Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Here’s the Groupon S-1 IPO Filing: What the Heck Is Adjusted CSOI?

Here is Groupon’s S-1 that it just filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In it, Groupon reveals a lot of information about who got what and what’s up with is financial performance.

One unusual metric the Chicago-based social buying site wants investors to pay attention to is something it is calling “Adjusted CSOI,” which is defined as adjusted consolidated segment operating income.

Let’s be clear, this is a number that does not include important costs, such as critical online marketing expenses to attract new customers to Groupon.

Such accounting is called non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles).

In 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, Groupon said its Adjusted CSOI was $60.6 million and $81.6 million, respectively.

On a GAAP basis, Groupon lost $413.4 million for 2010 and $113.9 million in the first three months of 2011.

Said Groupon about its accounting in its S-1 filing: “We believe Adjusted CSOI is an important measure of the performance of our business as it excludes expenses that are non-cash or otherwise not indicative of future operating expenses.”

Well, you be the judge:

grouponpdf

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When AllThingsD began, we told readers we were aiming to present a fusion of new-media timeliness and energy with old-media standards for quality and ethics. And we hope you agree that we’ve done that.

— Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, in their farewell D post