Spooked by the volatile stock market, Groupon has decided to put their planned $750 million initial public offering on hold, The Wall Street Journal reports. The daily deals site, which had originally planned to go public after Labor Day, has canceled a roadshow to attract potential investors and is "reassessing the timing for an IPO on a week by week basis." The Journal adds that the Securities and Exchange Commission is simultaneously looking into a recently leaked memo in which Groupon Chief Executive Andrew Mason outlined the company's strengths to employees. "Making public statements about the financial status of a company during an IPO process is prohibited by SEC rules," the paper explains.

The news comes during a rough patch for daily deals sites. Facebook and Yelp are reducing their presence in the market, customers are growing overwhelmed with the offerings, and participating countries are losing interest. While Groupon is certainly a market leader, The Atlantic Wire's Rebecca Greenfield noted last month, the site experienced its first month-to-month web traffic decline of the year in July.

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Uri Friedman