Source: Groupon Doesn’t Have The Cash to Build Its New Data Center

Re:Source: Groupon Doesn’t Have The Cash to Build Its New Da... by pbreit on Tuesday December 20, 2011 @01:15PM (#3374449)

This assertion is poorly sourced and sounds like bull. As many have noted, Groupon's processing and bandwidth requirements are relatively low. And are we really to believe "a source familiar with [Groupon's] business"?

ADD: OK, they do send out a lot of emails but even that seems manageable cost-wise with various options short of building your own data center.

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Re:Source: Groupon Doesn’t Have The Cash to Build Its New Da... by chernevik on Tuesday December 20, 2011 @02:10PM (#3374660)

Absolutely. It's headlined as if the situation is some kind of financial failure, but there are no numbers on the premium they're currently paying or the cost of a new center. 1/4 of the piece quotes prospectus boilerplate. No named attributions, nothing from analyst types following the industry.

Not even clear cash is the key here anyway, I would think they could finance a data center with some kind of construction mortgage, and maybe some leasing deal.

Now, pulling things out of my hat, I understand that companies can fully deduct their IT investments made in 2011, that's a huge tax advantage. I don't even know if Groupon can make use of that (are they paying taxes yet?). But if Groupon is missing that window because they _cannot_ get financing in place, _that_ would be a story, one with implications for Groupon, their model, the banks, and bank valuation of corporate IT capital assets.

This, on the other hand, is not a story of any sort.

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