Groupon Inc posted a quarterly loss, defying Wall Street's hopes that the fledgling daily deals company had eked out a profit in the final three months of 2011. Its shares tanked.

Cisco Systems Inc, which also reported on Wednesday, beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, spurring a surprise dividend increase.

Commentary:

GROUPON INC:

KEN SENA, ANALYST, EVERCORE PARTNERS

Billings were lighter than expected. There was a lot of anticipation.

North American revenues came in light versus the whisper number.

There was a large run up (in the stock), so there's some profit-taking here.

SAMEET SINHA, ANALYST, B. RILEY & COMPANY

The number of active customers came in short. That means not enough people are buying groupons.

Yes, you can get fewer people to buy more, but how long can that continue? You need to start investing in new customer growth.

HERMAN LEUNG, ANALYST, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP

The quarter was good. The guidance on the top line doesn't look like there was much of a surprise. It was only in line. I think some people expected that to be much higher.

Billings were also only in line. That was a little bit of surprise. The good news was that revenue and take rates were better than expected.

The bottom line loss, there's a little bit of confusion on the EPS line. They lost 2 cents, but I think there's some tax add-back. But I still haven't been able to clarify that.

AARON KESSLER, ANALYST, RAYMOND JAMES

The quarter looks fine. Some concern that the guidance looks flattish, sequentially. Maybe investors are looking for a little bit more growth on a sequential basis.

Pretty solid growth domestically for revenues.

CISCO SYSTEMS INC:

JOANNA MAKRIS, ANALYST, MIZUHO SECURITIES

It's a nice upside surprise.

Broadly speaking, people expected a good quarter. This is probably a little better than expected and the dividend is an added surprise.

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, Phil Wahba in New York and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco)

Cisco Systems