Groupon Cuts Staff And Shuts Markets

The online coupon site turned traditional e-tailer is sacrificing resources as part of the global company’s “next chapter.”

Groupon announced yesterday (Sept. 22) it will eliminate nearly 1,100 positions within its international Deal Factory and Customer Service over the next several months as it continues its efforts to unify its global technology platforms, tools and processes.

In a blog post, COO Rich Williams described Groupon’s One Playbook initiative as a huge undertaking, which is now forcing it to take a second look at its operations globally and make some essential cuts.

“We still have work to do, but our Operations teams, Engineering teams and many, many others have made amazing progress. Simply put, we are a stronger, faster Groupon today because of this work,” Williams said.

“We’re also now in a position to realize the efficiencies we’ve been working so hard to gain, to further improve the way we operate around the world and — most importantly — continue to channel more and more of our resources toward long-term growth. Practically, this means we’re taking some broad restructuring actions to better focus our resources and streamline our international operations.”

Not only is it laying off over 1,000 employees, but Groupon confirmed it is also reconsidering the markets in which it does business.

“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,” Williams continued. “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.”

[bctt tweet=”Groupon cuts 1,100 jobs, exits several countries as part of global restructuring efforts”]

The company confirmed plans to exit the following: Morocco, Panama, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay.

The closures come on the heels of recent exits in both Turkey and Greece, as well as a sell-off of its controlling stake in Groupon India to Sequoia back in March, TechCrunch reported.

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