Groupon downsizes, sacking 1100

Online deals and local commerce startup Groupon is rapidly downsizing, announcing it will be cutting 1100 jobs and leaving seven countries.

The job losses will mostly be on the sales and customer service side of things, while the startup will cease operations in Morocco, Panama, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay.

Groupon COO Rich Williams announced the drastic changes in a blog post on Tuesday.

“These are tough actions to take, especially when we believe we’re stronger than ever,” Williams says.

“We’re taking some broad restructuring actions to better focus our resources and streamline our international operations.

“We’ve also taken a close, honest look at where we do business.”

The company’s investments in these countries weren’t equal with the existing market potential, Williams says.

“We believe that in order for our geographic footprint to be an even bigger advantage, we need to focus our energy and dollars on fewer countries,” he says.

The startup has been making a whole host of changes of lot in an attempt to diversify its offerings and move away from just being an online bargains company.

Groupon went public in 2011, but shares have since dropped to more than 75% of the initial offering.

“Just as our business has evolved from a largely hand-managed daily deal site to a true e-commerce technology platform, our operational model has to evolve,” Williams says.

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