• Bloomberg Businessweek, Tuesday, June 14, 2011 12:06 PM

Ted Leonsis has been a director at Groupon since June 2009, and vice chairman since April 2011. He's also a partner at Revolution Growth, Steve Case's investing fund, which owns stock in Groupon rival LivingSocial. According to Revolution, Leonsis has no personal financial stake in LivingSocial, but -- as corporate-governance experts tell Bloomberg Businessweek -- the relationship could still pose a "conflict."

"While venture firms often have competing start-ups in their portfolios, Leonsis' situation involves two dominant companies in a market that may generate $3.9 billion in the U.S. alone by 2015," Bloomberg Businessweek explains. "His relationships also will face more scrutiny now that Groupon has filed to go public."

Corporate-governance experts say Groupon should have disclosed Leonsis' ties to Revolution in its IPO prospectus. "It puts him in a cross-loyalty position," says Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

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