Groupon's Gaffe, Apple's Apps: Tech Winners & Losers

Updated with closing prices at the end of this piece.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Groupon (GRPN) shares plunged 19.43% to $4.82 Thursday after the company reported fourth quarter results that badly missed Wall Street estimates.

Chicago-based Groupon reported a fourth-quarter adjusted loss of 5 cents a share on $638.3 million in revenue. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of 3 cents a share on revenue of $638.4 million, while the Estimize consensus called for Groupon to earn 1 cent a share on $627.49 million in sales.

Groupon: A Train Wreck in Public Sight

Included in the adjusted loss was a loss of 7 cents a share from discontinued items, making the net loss attributable to shareholders 12 cents a share.

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Apple (AAPL) shares rose 0.34% to $446.08 as the company announced it had surpassed the 1 billion app mark in iTunes U.

The company said more than 1,200 universities and colleges, and 1,200 K-12 schools and districts, are now hosting over 2,500 public and thousands of private courses as a result of iTunes U. Such universities as Duke, Yale, Cambridge, MIT and Oxford are leading the way, with more than 100,000 students enrolled in single iTunes U courses.

"It's inspiring to see what educators and students of all types are doing with iTunes U," said Apple's Eddy Cue in a press release. "With the incredible content offered on iTunes U, students can learn like never before; there are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn."

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IBM (IBM) shares fell 0.38% to to $201.57, as the company held its annual investor day, announcing some key updates.

IBM raised its 2015 revenue target for analytics and big data to $20 billion, up from $16 billion. In 2010, IBM initially thought analytics would drive $10 billion in revenue by 2015. The company also kept its operating earnings target, expecting to earn at least $20 a share by 2015.

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Closing prices: Groupon closed at $4.53, off $1.45, or -24.28%; Apple hit $441.40, giving up $3.17, off -0.71%; IBM closed at $200.83, down $1.50, or -0.74%.

--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

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