Groupon Investors Cash Out

One of the companies that drove hopes of a new boom now has investors fretting over another bust. Major investors in Groupon, including Silicon Valley guru Marc Andreessen, have decided in recent months to completely or partially unload their stakes in the daily-deals site, as the once lauded Internet company has failed to meet expectations. Yet analysts said that the companies would never have generated so much buzz in the investment world had these backers never jumped on board in the first place. “Groupon would never have gotten this big without that late-stage money,” said venture capitalist Bill Gurley. “The guys that backed Groupon early—even at today’s prices—they made lots of money.”