• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, September 7, 2011 12:53 PM

Groupon is reportedly reevaluating plans for an IPO, which was originally expected to achieve a $20 billion valuation. The culprit? "Stock-market volatility," reports The Wall Street Journal, citing a source. While the daily deal leader has yet to officially yank its IPO, it is reportedly reassessing the timing.

"The drop in the market has got everybody running scared," David Menlow, president of independent research provider IPOfinancial.com tells The Journal. But market mayhem isn't Groupon's only problem. Among other issues, "When the company filed to go public in early June, it attracted criticism for its high marketing costs and unprofitable business," The Journal notes. The company was also asked by the SEC to remove an unorthodox accounting metric, which potentially painted an overly rosy picture of its performance.

Meanwhile, Bradford Williams, Groupon's VP of global communications recently left the company -- reportedly due to the inappropriate way in which it responded to critics during the "quiet period" ahead of its IPO.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »