By Gilbert Falso :: 4:35 PM
The CEO of Groupon, the daily deal e-mail service, has been fired from his position.
In an e-mail to Groupon employees, former CEOÂ Andrew Mason outlined the reasons behind his departure, which come as no big surprise given the dismal earnings the company just announced.
This story continues to develop, but Mason’s e-mail to employees is below:
People of Groupon,
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. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.
You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I’m getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we’ve shared over the last few months, and I’ve never seen you working together more effectively as a global company – it’s time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.
For those who are concerned about me, please don’t be – I love Groupon, and I’m terribly proud of what we’ve created. I’m OK with having failed at this part of the journey. 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. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I’ll now take some time to decompress (FYI I’m looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I’ll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.
If there’s one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness – don’t waste the opportunity!
I will miss you terribly.
Love,
Andrew
Mason will be replaced by Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis.
The company released this statement by Letkofsky on Mason’s departure, “on behalf of the entire Groupon Board, I want to thank Andrew for his leadership, his creativity and his deep loyalty to Groupon. As a founder, Andrew helped invent the daily deals space, leading Groupon to become one of the fastest growing companies in history.”
By Paul Thomson :: 4:09 PM
The Vatican has deleted all of the Tweets from the official Papal Twitter account used by Pope Benedict XVI following his resignation earlier today.
Pope Benedict XVI Tweeted from the handle @pontifex, and had a few dozen Tweets, the last one posted at 11:00 AM this morning, shortly before he boarded a helicopter and left the Vatican for his summer residence.
Vatican officials replaced his name on the Twitter account with “Sede Vacante” a Latin term that refers to the time period without a pope – it translates to “the seat is vacant.”
No official word has been given for the deletion of the Tweets, although many are speculating that is has been done as a way to show that the position is vacant, and the Twitter account will be held for the next Pope, should he wish to use it.
During his time in the position, the Pope sent 20 Tweets – he opened his account in early January of this year. All Tweets have been archived by the Vatican, and can be found on their website.
By Gilbert Falso :: 11:16 AM
Pope Benedict XVI sent his final Tweet a few minutes ago from the official Papal Twitter account, @pontifex, before he boarded a helicopter and left the Vatican after stepping down from his role as the leader of the Catholic Church.
“Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives,” he Tweeted.
At this time, Church officials have not commented about what will become of Benedict’s Twitter accounts – they were created in multiple languages – and have several million followers across the globe.
A date for the start of the papal conclave that will decide who becomes the next Pople has not yet been set, but may be on Monday when the world’s cardinals formally meet to begin the process of selecting the new Catholic leader.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 10:41 AM
The University of Pennsylvania has fired an employee in their admissions office for posting details and comments about applicants to the University on Facebook.
Penn’s student newspaper,  The Daily Pennsylvanian, is reporting that Nadirah Farah Foley was dismissed after sharing portions of student application essays on her Facebook profile. Posts that Foley allegedly made on Facebook included excerpts of student essays along with her commentary about them.
In one instance, she quoted a portion of an admission essay where the applicant described overcoming his fear of using the bathroom outdoors while camping in the wilderness, and offered the snarky comment, “another gem.”
Foley’s comments somehow made their way to the college admission discussion board College Confidential, where high school students talk about admissions issues and the process of applying and getting accepted to college.
“This loses my respect for UPenn and for the general admissions process SOOO much,† a user said on the discussion board.
Copies of the posts were sent to the dean of admissions at Penn, Eric Furda, and Foley was dismissed. The University did not confirm that her dismissal was directly related to the postings, however. Foley had worked for Penn since 2011.
The Office of the Provost at Penn is currently reviewing policy changes that cover the privacy of applicant data and essay information.
By Gilbert Falso :: 7:09 PM
Music streaming service Pandora today announced that it would be limiting the number of hours of music that users could stream from their mobile devices each month.
Pandora users who do not have a paid account on the service will be limited to 40 hours per month of listening via a mobile device. The company expects that this will affect about 4% of its monthly active users.
Users who reach their 40 hour limit will have two choices. They can pay 99 cents to unlock unlimited mobile listening for the rest of the month, or they can switch to a Pandora desktop client. Users of Pandora’s Pandora One paid subscription service, the no-advertising, unlimited music tier of service, will not be affected.
The reason behind the move to curtailing mobile listening hours is due to rising royalty prices that the company must pay for licensing the music. Per-track royalty rates have risen more than 25% for the company in the last three years, with a 9% increase for this year alone. The company projects that over the next two years, royalty rates will increase another 16%.
Pandora estimates that it has 65.6 million active listeners as of the end of last month, an increase of about 40% from last year.
“Limiting listening is a very unusual thing to do, and very contrary to our mission,†Pandora’sco-founder Tim Westergren said in a blog post. He noted that he hopes these changes will help the company to “manage these escalating costs with minimal listener disruption.â€