I know nothing special about Groupon but this does look really bad.

It's akin to finding a greater fool down the road to leave the bag with. Normally that wouldn't bother me too much but given that they're going public the last fool who ends up holding the back may be your average, every day investor.

Maybe they'll put their personal money in it. Maybe the company managing their retirement account will buy it. Either way, it'll be out there in the public for less sophisticated investors to buy.

And, given that they've used such a high percentage of their latter investments to pay out early investors, always always looks bad. It shows low confidence in the company in the long run.

I think it would be wise to stay clear of Groupon.