LyrArc Article Gist
Ross Sorkin says the information put out in Groupon's IPO filing by the investment banks and other information raises warning signs. Groupon has $225 million in the bank, lost $102 million in the 3rd quarter 2011 on revenue of $878 million. The company has current liabilities of $681 million and only $376 million in assets. It owes vendors $392 millon as part of the current liabilities. Groupon spent $432 million in the first 6 months of 2011 on marketing. Other information shows Eric Lefkovsky, Groupon's chairman, sold a dotcom company in 1999 which went into bankruptcy a year later. And of the $950 million in a pre-IPO round in January 2011, Groupon paid out $810 million to investors and employees. Of this Mr. Lefkovsky and his wife were given $319 million. Goldman Sachs is the lead underwriter behind Groupon's IPO offering. Because of the huge fees involved investment banks and accounting firms were willing to come up with inflated valuations and a questionable metric called Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income, that showed operating income excluding major marketing and acquisition related costs....

LyrArc Article Gist
India's demographics show one startling fact. By 2020, the average age of Indians will be 29. This is happening just as the rest of the world is aging very fast. In the next 15 years India will have 130 million more people in the 20 to 49 age group. This compares with a shrinking in population of 100 million in that age group in developed countries and China, according to the U.N. Population Division. The problem facing India is malnutrition that runs as high as 43% for children with half the mothers anemic, weak educational system at the primary and secondary school levels especially in the government run schools, lack of good governance in the most populated states such as Uttar Pradesh in the Ganges plains which has 200 million people, the consequent overburdening of cities which have no plans to manage the migration of the rural poor to the cities. India has to find ways to fill the huge gaps in getting better nutrition, education, dignity and sense of opportunity, and work for the growing numbers....