Groupon’s Global Market Exit Continues

Groupon is further withdrawing its presence from Europe with its latest plan to exit from four Nordic countries as it continues to restructure its business.

The move, which removes Groupon’s presence from Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden, comes after the company announced plans in September of this year to lay off 1,100 employees from its international Deal Factory and Customer Service staff and made an exit from Turkey and Greece after selling off its controlling stake in Groupon India to Sequoia back in March. It also sold its controlling stake in TicketMonster for $360 million.

“As we continue our operational and strategic focus to simplify and streamline our international business, we are assessing our international portfolio to determine which assets can contribute to our long-term vision of aggressive, profitable growth,” said a company spokesperson in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. “After careful consideration, Groupon will discontinue its operations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland as of 16 November 2015.”

The latest round of closures comes on the heels of its withdrawal from other South Asian countries, including Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand, from the Americas in Panama, Puerto Rico and Uruguay and Morocco.

“We saw that the investment required to bring our technology, tools and marketplace to every one of our 40+ countries isn’t commensurate with the return at this point,” said Groupon CEO Rich Williams, who served as COO before replacing Cofounder Eric Lefkofsky to take up the company reigns earlier this month. “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.”

While the company continues to streamline its business, its quarterly earnings are not painting a success story. In its Q3 results, the company reportedly missed Wall Street’s expectations and didn’t give out a well-defined guidance for the fourth quarter, which further raises concerns about its revenue expectations for the 2015 holiday season.