Who’s Getting Out of Jams This Week?

Arguments. Invalid.

Weird News

In Desert Hot Springs, California, an eight month old German Shepherd named Rebel got his head stuck in an 18″ block wall.  Animal rescue officers were able to free him after 30 minutes of careful rocking (and perhaps one minute of dangerous classic rock jams).  The dog was freed without injury.  When asked why he did it he said, “I’m Rebel, baby” and put on sunglasses then skateboarded away ’cause he’s so cool.  We may have hallucinated that last part after watching a Disney movie marathon.

Business

Groupon, which may be the fastest growing company in web history, filed with the state of Delaware to begin selling up to $950 million in shares of Series G preferred stock which would convert into common stock if the company goes public.  So far they’ve raised almost $500 million of that $950 million.  If they succeed in raising the full amount, it will be the biggest venture capital deal of all time (the current first place being the $500 million raised by Pixar in 1995).  Groupon outselling Pixar?  Have they seen how cute WALL-E is?

Not all businesses are finding it easy to raise money.  Shares in Borders bookstores have fallen 15% after the company told publishers they would not be able to pay them on time for books already received. Borders, the second largest bookseller in the U.S., doubled losses in the third quarter of 2010 and say they may have a “liquidity shortfall”.  They are speaking with creditors about new loans and may sell some of their assets.  All they have to do is mark down those 2010 calenders thirty percent and they should be fine.

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  • Rebel the dog doesn’t care about your artificial boundaries, man. (Newslite)
  • Groupon raising up to $950 million. (Reuters, TechCrunch, and Fortune)
  • Borders bookstores delaying payments to publishers, stock drops 15%. (BBC)

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[news-morenews]

  • Wikipedia announced on Saturday that their $16 million 2010 fundraiser was a success, raising the largest amount of money in their shortest fundraiser to date.  Maybe Jimmy will stop staring at us now. (Geekosystem)
  • The WakeMate wristband, an alarm clock which monitors sleeping patterns, is being recalled due to USB chargers that catch on fire. Well, that’ll wake you up.  Some people would call this a feature. (Engadget)
  • Speaking of things going down in flames, MySpace is rumored to be firing 50% of its workforce. (SlashGear)

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[news-stats]

  • Groupon has about five million members getting an average discount of 57% per purchase.  The average Groupon customer is a young, single, well-educated woman with a higher than average income. (VisualLoop)
  • In a survey of 150 businesses that have used Groupon, 66% reported turning a profit on the initial sale despite the large discount offered.  Of those making profitable sales on the customer’s first visit, 82% said they would offer another discount through Groupon in the future. (SAI)
  • Here’s a comparison of the year 2000 and the year 2010.  Shockingly, broadband subscriptions went way up but sales of Sisqó albums plummeted. (Buzzfeed)
  • Picture via TechCrunch.

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