The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pressed Groupon CEO Andrew Mason last month amidst the company IPO about the Mason Memo that was leaked. The controversy around the memo is that there is supposed to be a “quiet period” in the press before a company has a public offering. In the memo, Mason laid out some of the financial metrics and trends to explain why Groupon is doing well despite all the bad press. In the memo, Mason said that he was “excited” about the company’s prospects and this could be considered as a way to pump the IPO.

Yesterday Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) had an initial public offering. The company set their stock price at $20 and yesterday it closed at $26.11. The company was given a valuation of over $17 billion. BusinessInsider.com has compiled a list of how much the executives and investors made from the IPO. Below is the list:

Pelango, the mobile application development company that created Whrrl, has been acquired by Groupon. Whrrl allows users to check in to locations and discover new places. Pelango founder Jeff Holden will become an executive of Groupon’s product development team as part of the acquisition. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Rob Solomon, the COO and President of daily deals website Groupon.com, has stepped down. It is uncertain why he is leaving, but Groupon CEO Andrew Mason said that he is moving back to Woodside, California. “He will remain a friend and advisor to the company into perpetuity,” said Mason. [AllThingsD]

In an interview with Time, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason was quoted: “To me, as somebody who likes to come up with ideas, it’s kind of stupid,” he added: “Like, I’ve had way better ideas, way cooler ideas.” Turns out that the stupid idea of Groupon is really paying off. The company recently rejected a $6 billion offer from Google and they are hiring 100 more people every month.

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason took some time to explain why they ran the politically incorrect ads on the Super Bowl. Groupon partnered with community organizations like SaveTheMoney.org for on this idea.

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason did an interview with Charlie Rose last night. Mason refused to talk about the acquisition offer that Google made, but he did reveal a few stats. He said that Groupon has about 40 million subscribers and about 3 million joined last week alone. One of the most notable quotes in the interview was about how some people are calling Groupon the fastest growing company ever. He said that they like the “N’Sync of websites,” where they have a few good tunes but its not like they are “The Beatles.” [Note: If you cannot see the video clip: watch it directly on Hulu at this link.]

Daily deal website Groupon.com has acquired mobile development firm Mob.ly for an undisclosed amount. The company has also opened up an office in Palo Alto, California. Groupon also hired former Netflix executive Mark Johnson as the new Chief Data Officer.