Groupon (GRPN) CEO and founder Andrew Mason is scheduled to appear at the Business Insider Ignition conference in New York today.
So, naturally, when tech journalist Kara Swisher published a story saying that Groupon's board is "seriously discussing" replacing Mason, we expected we might soon get a call explaining that Mason had to cancel his appearance because of a "scheduling conflict" or something.
But we didn't!
On the contrary, we got a call from Mason's team saying, in effect, "Well, now you have an interesting first question."
And we certainly do!
We were already looking forward to interviewing Andrew Mason, as there is plenty to talk about. But this new report does add some extra spice to the occasion. (Groupon's Board of Directors and shareholders are not too pleased with the recent performance of the stock; shares are down more than 80% since January).
And kudos in advance to Mason and the Groupon team for not reacting to the report by going into the fetal position (a typical corporate response).
For the record, Swisher's report is carefully hedged. "To be clear," Swisher says, a move of replacing [Mason] is not likely to happen immediately, or at all."
So the reports of Mason's death as CEO may be exaggerated.
We'll get to the bottom of all this later today.
Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook!
More Groupon coverage from The Daily Ticker:
Groupon Stock Plummets After Poor Q3 Earnings: Has It Hit a Wall?
Groupon's Move into Mobile Payments: Hail Mary or Savvy Strategy?
Groupon Blows It Again, Restates Earnings as Customers Demand Refunds
