Groupon, which has lost 99.4% of its value since its IPO, names a new CEO... based in Czech Republic

A dozen years ago, Groupon shot to fame popularizing the online group buying format, confidently rejecting a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google and instead going public with a $17.8 billion market cap. The company today says it has 14 million active users, but almost consistently for the last decade, its financial position has been in a slow decline -- with stagnation in its core business model, little success in efforts to diversify, declining revenues and ongoing losses.

And today comes the latest chapter in that story. The Chicago-based company, which today has a market cap of just $103 million (a drop of 99.4% from its public market debut), has appointed Dusan Senkypl, a current board member, as interim CEO. Senkypl will run the company... out of the Czech Republic.

His appointment is effective immediately, the company said in a statement today.

He replaces Kedar Deshpande, who had been Groupon's CEO for just 15 months. Before Groupon, Deshpande was an exec at Zappos for more than a decade, and after he took the Groupon job, he continued to be based out of Las Vegas. He will stay on for 60 more days to help with the transition, the company said.

Senkypl is a co-founder of Pale Fire Capital, a PE firm based in Prague (and named after the Nabokov novel?). Most of Pale Fire's investments are in businesses out of its home country and other parts of Europe. But it is also currently Groupon's biggest shareholder -- a role it has not held passively: The two businesses were embroiled in an activist fight last year that resulted in the firm getting two board seats at the company, one of which Senkypl holds.

“Since he joined the Board, Dusan has been very engaged as a director, providing important oversight on Groupon’s strategy and strengths and helping the company identify areas in need of improvement," noted Ted Leonsis, Groupon's chairman, in an upbeat take on the news.