• Business Insider, Wednesday, August 31, 2011 11:53 AM

Is Groupon coming apart at the seams? Bradford Williams, Groupon's (now ex) vice president of global communications, seems to think so. After only two months on the job, he's reportedly left due to the way Groupon has responded to critics during the "quiet period" ahead of its IPO. Specifically, a source tells Business Insider that Williams objected to a memo that Groupon CEO Andrew Mason recently sent to employees, in which he responded to mounting criticism over the company's business operations.

The internal memo quickly leaked to the press, in what BI explains "felt like an orchestrated plant." If the memo was in fact leaked, it may have violated the SEC's "quiet period" rules for companies awaiting their spot on the public market.

Either way, "Mason's decision to write and send this memo is indicative of the kind of decision-making at Groupon that led Williams to walk away," BI writes. Said BI's source: "Andrew and [Williams] didn't agree on a lot -- [they had] different views on lots of things."

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