HispanicBusiness

This is a company that filed a series of revisions to its IPO documents, including a restatement of revenue and the discarding of an accounting method it created to show its revenue in a better light. Never mind Mason's end around on pre-IPO quiet-period rules with a staff email -- almost immediately leaked -- that sought to counter critics questioning Groupon's prospects and business model.

"As a Chicagoan, I'm really sad, because we're proud when somebody does good here," said Francine McKenna, an expert on the accounting and auditing industry who writes the Accounting Watchdog column for Forbes. "We love promoting our companies, especially homegrown success stories, and this is embarrassing.

"Because they're growing so fast, because they're trying to take a less conservative approach when they're developing these numbers, because they want to shine the best possible light on what they're doing, they got caught short. There was nothing they could do but admit they screwed up."

The question is whether this is merely part of an exceptionally difficult birthing process, not uncommon among tech firms where growth outstrips the ability to establish proper controls, or something more. History says it could go either way.

"What we see is part of a pattern," Post said "The growth story is so powerful and exciting and energizing for people that that's all they want to talk about and that's what they focus on, the expansion. Meanwhile, you've got to have people who are overseeing the business and the financial controls. ... Where are the adults who are going to keep an eye on running the business in a way that's going to meet regulatory and investor standards? But it's not very exciting to say we've got to hire some more accountants or some more auditors.

"Even someone as talented as (the late Steve) Jobs, who ultimately built the most valuable company in the world, there were points in time when (Apple) didn't have the kind of adult supervision needed. ... With an investment community out there looking to put big money on the table, you're legally and ethically responsible to do certain things that meet those investor expectations."

Moog points to billions of dollars in revenue at Groupon, if your confidence in those figures also remain unshaken, and the potential he sees in Groupon to grow beyond the daily deals for which it's best known.

"The bigger question is: Can they pull off this bridge from 'We are a discount driven daily deals site' to 'We are a full-service marketing platform that does loyalty and inventory management'?" he said.

All we've heard from Groupon management to date is a statement attributed to Chief Financial Officer Jason Child saying the company remained "confident in the fundamentals of our business, as our performance continues to highlight the value that we provide to customers and merchants."

Groupon has to do better than that. It must give everyone a reason to remain calm and confident. Greater transparency and fewer surprises would be a good start. Addition of a seasoned hand or two among management ranks surely would help. Critics as well as boosters need to see more to believe more.

"Groupon is not the first company to face this problem," Post said. "They won't be the last, and it's a surmountable problem. But they have to take it seriously and not try to discount it or marginalize it and say it doesn't matter. It does matter and it's going to matter legally, and it's certainly going to matter in terms of investor expectations."

And, like it or not, we're all invested.