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"(Reuters) &amp;#8211; Groupon reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, as strong sales in North America and restructuring of its businesses boosted margins.\nThe company&amp;#8217;s shares \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tgrpn\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, which have fallen 70% in the last 12 months, rose 17% in after-hours trading on Thursday.\nThe company exited 19 markets across the world last year to bolster its North American business.\nGroupon has also stepped up its marketing efforts under new CEO Rich Williams, who replaced co-founder Eric Lefkofsky in November.\nGross billings, a key measure reflecting the gross amount collected from customers, rose 10.7% to $1.05 billion in North America, its biggest market.\nThe holiday shopping weekend was an important contributor to company&amp;#8217;s strong quarter, interim CFO Brian Kayman told Reuters.\nGroupon said in December its North American billings rose 41% from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.\nThe company, which unveiled a $150 million to $200 million marketing blitz in November, said the number of active users rose 3% to 48.9 million.\nGroupon has also been offloading low-margin businesses such as consumer electronics.\nThe move helped the company raise its adjusted EBITDA forecast to $80 million-$130 million from $75 million-$125 million for 2016.\nFor more about Groupon, watch: \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\nNet loss attributable to Groupon was $46.5 million, or 8 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of $8.8 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier.\nExcluding items, the company earned 4 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of a breakeven on a per-share basis.\nRevenue rose 3.8% to $917.2 million, above analysts&amp;#8217; expectations of $845.9 million."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2016/02/11/groupons-shares-soar-17-on-strong-sales/>