Andrew Mason, Former Groupon CEO, Given Just $376.36 As Severance

Andrew Mason, Groupon's ousted CEO, is getting a severance of just $376.36 from the company he founded back in 2008, CNN Money reports.

"Groupon's (GRPN) IPO filing details his employment agreement, which calls for Groupon to keep paying his salary for six months after he leaves the company," writes CNN Money. "Because Mason was making only $756.72 per year, that doesn't amount to much."

The famously oddball Mason has lately been the focus of a widening drama surrounding the Chicago-based online group deals company. On Thursday, Mason sent out (and posted online) a brutally honest memo, informing his Groupon colleagues he had been fired.

"I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today," Mason said in the memo. "If you're wondering why. you haven't been paying attention."

Mason's note referred to a host of problems that have recently plagued Groupon, including news from the day before his firing that Groupon had lost a full 26 percent of its market value, a massive dropoff made worse by a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of about $81 million.

Additionally, Groupon had what some might have seen as an unusually large staff, which numbered at least 11,000 at one point but was reduced through a round of firings on at least one occasion.

And in the fall of last year, after the company's value had taken a long downhill slide, Mason even said he would fire himself if necessary.

"If there's one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer," Mason wrote in his memo to staff on Thursday. "My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers."

But don't feel too bad for him: Mason departs the company with slightly more than $212 million worth of Groupon shares, Bloomberg reports.