Daily deals site Groupon on Wednesday issued its first earnings report as a publicly traded company, saying its loss in the quarter shrank to about $43 million as revenue nearly tripled from a year earlier. \"Groupon had a strong fourth quarter and we finished 2011 having helped 250,000 local merchants across 47 countries grow their businesses while saving Groupon customers billions of dollars,\" said chief executive Andrew Mason. \"We will continue to invest in new services and tools that help our merchant partners be more successful and drive local commerce around the world,\" the Chicago-based company\'s co-founder added. Groupon revenue climbed to $506.5 million, a 194 percent increase from the same quarter a year earlier. The company had a net loss of $42.7 million as compared with a $378.6 million loss in the final three months of 2010. Groupon trimmed about $100 million from its loss figure in the prior quarter to end the year $350.85 million in the red.