What allows companies to grow and prosper is a viable product offering at a fair price in which the buyer perceives you are providing him with value and the seller, Groupon in this case, has something left as a profit with which to reinvest in the business, pay dividends and see its stock price rise if it is a public company.

FORBES: Groupon Remains a Put On

And with less access to capital, less credibility in the money markets, and less profit to reinvest, that investment programme would be cut back.

BBC: SSE's energetic counter-attack