Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN): After his forced departure a few months ago, Groupon founder Andrew Mason sort of fell out of the spotlight. Until now, that is, and it seems that he’s been busy, but not in the ways you’d expect. Andrew has lost weight, traveled around a bit, written a seven-track motivational CD, planned a move to San Francis — wait, what? He wrote a CD? TechCrunch thought he was kidding too, but he actually did. However, it does make sense, seeing how he studied piano at the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.

Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA): As if Zynga didn’t already have enough problems on its plate already, with its battered stock and shuddering user base, a number of former Zynga employees have branched out on their own to make games that will compete directly with Zynga’s offerings. JuiceBox games and its three founders — all of whom served a stint at Zynga — are creating HonorBound, a game meant to compete directly with Zynga’s War of the Fallen. However, the picture is bigger than sibling rivalry: employees are ditching the gaming giant because of its corporate bureaucracy, weakening Zynga from the inside.

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Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN): Shares of Groupon and Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) leapt after Jana Partners revealed holding a 21.9 million Groupon shares and 24.6 million of Zynga in regulatory filings on Wednesday. The two companies are among the most battered tech stocks in the market right now, but outlooks are slowly improving, and Jana’s massive stakes in the firms — about 3 percent of the outstanding shares, respectively — should help push out the huge short positions in both and improve investor sentiment for the two names.

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Globecomm Systems Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.18 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $0.19. It missed the average revenue estimate of $88 million.

Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) delivered a profit and met Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 50% to $0.03 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.02 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 7.53% to $601.4 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Groupon Inc reported adjusted EPS income of $0.03 per share. By that measure, the company met the mean analyst estimate of $0.03. It beat the average revenue estimate of $588.92 million.

SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ:SODA) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 41.67% to $0.68 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.48 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 33.83% to $117.6 million from the year-earlier quarter.

SodaStream International Ltd. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.68 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.54. It beat the average revenue estimate of $113.11 million.

Lamar Advertising Co. (NASDAQ:LAMR) had a loss and missed Wall Street’s expectations, AND came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased to $-0.07 in the quarter versus EPS of $-0.25 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 6.48% to $283.5 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Lamar Advertising Co. reported adjusted EPS loss of $0.07 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $-0.03. It missed the average revenue estimate of $283.8 million.

Tim Hortons Inc. (NYSE:THI) delivered a profit and missed Wall Street’s expectations, AND came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 0% to $0.56 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.56 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 1.27% to $731.54 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Tim Hortons Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.56 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $0.62. It missed the average revenue estimate of $755.13 million.

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Facebook (NASDAQ:FB): The social media giant is in advanced stages of discussions to acquire Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze, for anywhere between $800 million and $1 billion. Waze declined to comment on the matter, but the talks have reportedly been ongoing for the last six months.

Pandora Media (NYSE:P): Pandora shares are hitting new 52-week highs on Thursday, following the announcement that it hired Tommy Page, a former record-company executive and most recently a publisher at Billboard, in the new position of Vice President, of Artist and Brand Partnerships. The company says Page’s ”immediate focus is to expand artist development programming,” both in branded content and live events. Wading deeper into original content could help Pandora differentiate itself in the streaming market, which has faced heat for its royalty-based business model.

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Outdoor Channel Holdings (NASDAQ:OUTD): Kroenke Sports Entertainment has raised its offer for Outdoor, from $9.35 per share in cash to $10.25, now placing a higher premium than InterMedia’s $9.75 bid. Whopper Investments notes that Kroenke might be trying to draw InterMedia into coming back with a cash and stock deal at a far higher price, which Whopper estimates that InterMedia comes back in the low-mid $11 range with a 20 percent equity component.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG): Although Jeffrey Gundlach enjoys the company’s burritos, that’s about all he likes from the fast-casual restaurant. “I hate the chart, I like the products,” he said. “I do not like the P/E ratio. I am not impressed with earnings growth….I am not attracted to anything related to middle-class consumer discretionary income,” said Gundlach, one of the world’s biggest bond fund managers. His advice? Short Chipotle. “All you need to compete with CMG’s core business is a taco truck,” he said.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN): Shares are racing after a strong quarterly report on Wednesday, which saw in-line earnings but a healthy revenue that beat expectations. During the call, co-CEO Ted Leonsis said that the daily-deals giant is in no hurry to find a permanent chief executive, following Andrew Mason’s hurried and forced departure earlier this year. The company is also counting on tech consolidation efforts to give the struggling international markets a lift. Here are more details about Groupon’s earnings.

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Futures at 8:40 a.m.: DJIA: -0.15%, S&P 500: -0.20%, NASDAQ: -0.32%.

Here’s what’s buzzing on Thursday morning:

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is reportedly in advanced talks with Israeli mobile-satellite navigation startup Waze about a possible acquisition valued between $800 million and $1 billion. There has been on official word from the companies on the situation, but Israeli business daily Calcalist reported the possible buyout on Wednesday. Waze and Facebook partnered on a project in October of 2012, giving the deal some precedence.

Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock surged as much as 22 percent in post-market trading on Wednesday after the electric-vehicle maker reported first-quarter results that beat estimates. Revenue climbed 1762.78 percent on the year to $562 million (not a typo, the company just hardly made any money in the year-ago period), and beat the average estimate of $492 million. Adjusted earnings increased from -$0.76 per share in the year-ago period to $0.12 per share, beating the average estimate of $0.04 per share… (Read more.)

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) climbed as much as 12 percent in post-market trading. The beleaguered daily-deals site posted first-quarter earnings that beat expectations. Revenue climbed 7.53 percent on the year to $601.4 million, which compares to the average estimate of $588.92 million. Adjusted earnings increased 50 percent on the year to $0.03 per share, meeting the average estimate… (Read more.)

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ:GMCR) climbed as much as 15 percent in pre-market trading. Revenue rose 13.5 percent to $1 billion, barely missing the average estimate of $1.02 billion. Adjusted earnings climbed 45 percent to $0.93 per share, beating the average estimate of $0.73 per share.

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Groupon stock has performed pretty poorly since the company held its IPO in 2011. Shares are down nearly 80 percent since then, with 47 percent year-over-year losses overshadowing mild year-to-date gains of 8.6 percent. Shares were up as much as 35 percent this year as recently as April, but took what seems to be a now-unwarranted dive ahead of earnings.

The stock has been subjected to the vagaries of Mr. Market’s mood swings because of its still largely unproven business model. Investors are unsure whether or not the company has legitimate long-term prospects. The real mover for the stock — and the company — will be its ability to grow into a robust, international e-commerce platform, buoyed by a strong presence in mobile and location-based services. A successful transformation could turn one of the biggest Internet IPO flops into one of the biggest Internet turnaround stories.

Over the long run, Groupon has proven that it can generate revenue, but has not necessarily been able to pull its earnings up from below the red line.

At one point — between the beginning of March and the end of April — Groupon stock was up more than 26 percent. Investors seemed to gain a renewed enthusiasm for the company after founder Andrew Mason was relieved of his position as CEO.

In case you missed it, here are the slides from the company’s earnings presentation.

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Groupon Inc Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 50% to $0.03 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.02 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 7.53% to $601.4 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Groupon Inc reported adjusted EPS income of $0.03 per share. By that measure, the company met the mean analyst estimate of $0.03. It beat the average revenue estimate of $588.92 million.

Quoting Management: “We are encouraged by our results, as our local revenues accelerated and our margins improved over the prior quarter,” said Eric Lefkofsky, Chairman and co-CEO of Groupon. “We had record mobile performance as 45% of our North American transactions came from mobile in March, and more than 7 million people downloaded our apps in the quarter.”

Key Stats (on next page)…

Revenue decreased 5.78% from $638.3 million in the previous quarter. EPS increased to $0.03 in the quarter versus EPS of $-0.01 in the previous quarter.

Looking Forward: Analysts have a neutral outlook for the company’s next-quarter performance. Over the past three months, the average estimate for next quarter’s earnings is a profit of $0.05 and has not changed. For the current year, the average estimate has moved down from a profit of $0.24 to a profit of $0.20 over the last ninety days.

Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. In fact, “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework for this very reason. Don’t waste another minute – click here and get our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now.

(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Email any earnings discrepancies to earnings [at] wallstcheatsheet.com)

Kirby (NYSE:KEX): BB&T believes that Kirby us now starting to see leverage from its foray into offshore markets, and expects that the company will benefit from improving coastwise dynamics moving ahead. It keeps a Buy rating on the shares.

SodaStream (NASDAQ:SODA): Roth Capital is expecting SodaStream to benefit from rapidly expanding sales and new brand partnerships, although is cautious in noting that the operating margin likely fell by about 100 basis points in Q1, as a result of production issues for its Super Bowl ad. It keeps a $60 price target and Buy rating on the shares.

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Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA): The social media gaming company beat Wall Street estimates, with earnings of $0.01 per share — beating by $0.05. Revenue of $229.8 million beat by $20 million, though it was down 20 percent year-over-year. Despite stronger than expected performance, shares fell over 13 percent in after-hours trading likely due to lower than anticipated second quarter guidance numbers.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN): Not a whole lot of news has come from the daily deal giant since the dramatic departure of former CEO Andrew Mason, and the company’s vice president of mobile David Katz confirmed that it was more or less business as usual. Tuesday, though, saw the release of updated editions of its iPhone and Android apps, which now include a universal search feature that will allow users to search for marketplace deals in nearby areas, and include offers in addition to the the time-sensitive discount coupons.

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