(Image source: The Telegraph)

BY EVAN THOMAS AND CHRISTINA HARTMAN

ANCHOR JIM FLINK

Groupon had its first earnings call earlier this week. Did the biggest tech IPO of last year hold up?

Not really. The daily deal deliverer reported a $42 million loss for the 4th quarter of 2011.

Bloomberg says the company’s massive marketing budget didn’t help.

“They got a lot of criticism about having super-high marketing costs. …  When a company would spend $224m in a 13-week period for marketing, you say ‘wow, that’s a really expensive business to run.’”

The loss amounts to about 8 cents per share. The Wall Street Journal suggests — it might be that Groupon is just a new company.

“They’re hiring a lot of people and making acquisitions, to build new services... And the fact that this is the first report since the IPO; the company not given any guidance, really...”

And some analysts say — maybe it’s just too much, too fast. A CNBC analyst says flat out — Groupon is not a good investment.

“I shouldn’t say this, but run. Run, don’t walk from that stock. When you see 1600% tax, when you see nearly $700m in marketing, how could you possibly own a stock like that?”

Still — Groupon DID beat analysts’ expectations in terms of revenue — it tripled from the period a year earlier. SeekingAlpha says Groupon’s problem is it doesn’t make the same kind of money other big names do.

“Groupon will soon turn profitable, but its earnings release shows the daily deals sector does not scale well, and even when profitable it will never be the kind of pure high-margin Internet business that other companies, such as Facebook and Google, epitomize.”

But Groupon isn’t sitting on its hands. In response, the Chicago Tribune notes, the company...

“…is considering launching more promotions around special occasion gift-giving following the success of its holiday campaign last year. The company is also planning to add more personalization options to its platform in the first half of 2012...”