>> Groupon's business-professor cofounder, Eric Lefkofsky, has dumped about $382 million of his shares in the prior private financings.
It's important to know what percentage of his total shares he dumped to form an opinion on this.
It's important to know what percentage of his total shares he dumped to form an opinion on this.
Eric Lefkofksy has sold (through related entities jointly owned with his wife) about 32 million shares, for $382 million. From the latest S-1, it appears he and his LLCs retain about 129 million shares, so he's sold about 20% of his earlier holdings.
Interestingly, Groupon also paid out about $27 million in dividends in 2009.
Mason diversifying away from Groupon makes good sense, without sending much of a negative signal, as his net worth was probably 99%+ in Groupon before the 2009 dividend and then later stock sales. Lefkofsky was already very wealthy (and thus presumably diversified) from other ventures, so his sales are a stronger signal that he thinks other investments are more promising.
[1] http://allthingsd.com/20110602/where-did-groupons-billion-do...
[2] http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/0001047469110...
not in such a case. 382M out of close to 1B round - it is obvious that he dumped _all_ what he could dump. The rest of his holding doesn't matter - it is just paper.