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"According to CNBC, Groupon has reduced its sales team by roughly 80 members. The reason for the firing was 'increased productivity' through technological progress.\r\n\r\nThis news\u00A0comes\u00A0as the company's earnings loom, due just after the closing of the day's trading. Groupon's stock has ticked up more than 3% on the day during normal hours.\r\n\r\nThe firings are almost surprising, as in its last quarterly report Groupon stated that it intended to continue hiring [Bold: TNW]:\r\nWe anticipate that our operating expenses will increase substantially in the foreseeable future as we continue to invest to increase our customer base, increase the number and variety of deals we offer each day, expand our marketing channels, expand our operations, hire additional employees and develop our technology platform.\r\nGroupon will report its earnings in just under 1.5 hours. TNW will bring you that information as it breaks. The company is expected to earn $0.03 per share on revenues just shy of $600 million.\r\n\r\n\u00A0Top Image Credit:\u00A0TechCrunch"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/08/an-hour-before-its-earnings-are-due-news-breaks-that-groupon-has-fired-around-80-members-of-its-sales-staff/>