Groupon, responding to regulators’ inquiries into a controversial revision of its fourth-quarter results and handling of refunds, has promised to shore up disclosure but stopped short of agreeing to outline the performance of individual products — from travel to concert deals.
The daily-deals site’s stock price hit an all-time low of $3.68 during the trading day, closing at $3.83, down 20 cents. Its shares have fallen 81.5 percent this year.
The Securities and Exchange Commission asked Groupon in August to provide information and explain its reporting on a wide range of financial metrics.
Groupon’s response was made public yesterday, underscoring the extent to which the commission continued to probe into its internal accounting months after the Internet deals leader went public last year.
Many of the SEC’s queries revolved around how the company estimates customer refunds under the “Groupon Promise,” under which subscribers who change their minds get their money back in full.
An unexpectedly large number of refunds for fast-growing, costlier new services such as Groupon Getaways helped prompt the results revision in April, and is considered by some analysts to be a major risk to the company’s cash flow.
“The maximum amount of future or potential refunds, or total unredeemed vouchers, is not a metric that the company currently evaluates,” the company said in its filing, portions of which were redacted.
“The company is able to make reasonable estimates of potential future refunds at the time the vouchers are purchased without tracking the amount of total unredeemed vouchers outstanding.”