Again, if this really is a 'land grab' as he claims, why did they pay out hundreds of millions to early investors? Why not spend that money grabbing more land? Assuming he's correct, the returns would be several times greater if they continued investing rather than issuing huge payouts. It seems like a huge red flag to me -- a sign that even the earliest investors see Groupon as a big risk and want to hedge their bets.
For Google and EBay, they were making money hand over fist (the main problem they had when Meg Whitman joined was opening envelopes full of cash fast enough) and growing rapidly. Nobody wanted to cash out.
