(Newser)
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Groupon gave CEO Andrew Mason the boot today after another lousy earnings report, and the company's long-suffering stock immediately jumped more than 7%, reports the Wall Street Journal. The ouster wasn't much of a surprise, and Mason himself seems to have accepted it with sense of humor intact, as evidenced by his farewell memo to employees picked up by AllThingsD. "After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family," it begins. "Just kidding—I was fired today."
Mason runs through some of the problems Groupon has faced, including "controversial metrics," and says he is accountable as CEO. But he's also "terribly proud" of the company he co-founded. "I’m OK with having failed at this part of the journey," he writes. "If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through."
