I'm not sure saying "revenue fell in half" is accurate. It looks like they are clarifying what revenue it actually makes ie, instead of counting the full value of the coupon as revenue, they are now adjusting revenue numbers to reflect what their cut of the coupon is. Still sort of shady that they were quoting the first number to begin with...unless that is totally common, which I wouldn't know.
Not only that, this is a terrible mistake by the SEC. Groupon should count total receipts as revenue, that way shareholders can see the average merchant split across periods. It is deceptive to report net-revenue as gross revenue. The old way is far more transparent.
You're right, 'fell' is a misleading word and not used by the WSJ in this case. This is Groupon being forced to follow usual standards for when the revenue is 'theirs' rather than someone else's. It's a restatement rather than a period-to-period decline.
I think the word financial types used is "revised". As in - Groupon's QX revenue revised down to half it's original value.
"Fell" means there is some kind of time-dependence. If you already thought Groupon's accounts were overstated, this isn't news, while falling revenue would be.
