Part 5. Being a public company From what Groupon has gone through in the early years of being a public company, we can see the financial reporting responsibility of public companies and the scrutiny they receive. One major motivation for Groupon to go public is to raise external financing to fund its growth. However, IPO is not its only option. It could also (1) borrow additional money from creditors (2) seek private investment (c.g., equity investment by a few wealthy individuals or venture capitalists) (3) sell the company to other firms. In fact, both Google and Yahoo have separately approached Groupon before its IPO. Yahoo offered to buy it at a price around $3-$4 billion while Google offered nearly $6 billion. Groupon rejected both offers. Questions: 1. Discuss the financial reporting responsibility, had Groupon choose one of the three options. 2. Why did Groupon forego the three options and choose IPO instead? Discuss the feasibility and tradeoffs of the three options, compared to IPO