Groupon plans to raise $540 million, instead of its original goal of $1 billion, before going public in 2012.
Groupon plans to raise $540 million, instead of its original goal of $1 billion, before going public in 2012. Courtesy groupon.com

Several of Groupon Inc's [NASDAQ: GRPN] largest early investors have sold their stock in the troubled online voucher site, it was reported today.

Internet finance mogul Marc Andreessen, who invested $40 in the company months before it went public last November, has cashed out, while investors Fidelity and Maverick Capital have sold a large portion of their shares, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Groupon's stock price has fallen by three quarters since its glitzy IPO, a loss of around $10 billion, and the firm's rapid fall from grace echoes the disappointment of other online stock failures such as Facebook and Zynga.

Groupon's stock closed at a record low of $4.75 on Friday.

Andreessen's firm, Andreessen Horowitz, sold 5.1 million Groupon shares after selling restrictions expired on June 1.

The exit of the Netscape founder's company is another blow to the beleaguered daily deal website, which has gone from investor darling to poster boy for what some fear is the next dot-com bubble.

Despite the pessimism, analysts point to the fact that unlike 2000's infamous dot-com rout, many tech companies are in fact making a profit, they are just not meeting earnings expectations.

Facebook Software Facebook