Groupon Shares Slammed After Weak Quarter

Shares of Groupon

tumbled in after-hours trading on Wednesday, falling well over 20%. The daily deals website posted a loss per share of $0.05 -- analysts had been anticipating a gain of $0.03. Revenue was also weak, coming in at $638.30 million, less than the $640 million that had been anticipated. Likewise, Guidance was light. Groupon guided first-quarter sales of $560-610 million, far less than the $650 million analysts had been expecting. Shares of Groupon have performed tremendously over the past few months, more than doubling since hitting a low near $2.70 in mid-November. Hedge fund Tiger Global purchased about a 10% stake in the company late last year. Yet, there have been signs that the daily deals space has been struggling. Amazon

took a big write-down on its investment in Groupon's biggest rival, Living Social, when it reported earnings back in October. Similarly, Google

-- which had once attempted to purchase Groupon years ago -- sold its DailyDeal acquisition back to its founders just a few weeks ago. Groupon's earnings conference call is scheduled to begin at 5pm ET.