As a fellow Solyndra "bagholder", I think it did, actually. The plan was never about solar.
As for the owner of Groupon, he missed his window. It's a brilliant model of operation, but there are no secrets to it, so it can be easily reproduced. The giants of the Internet will swallow him up now.
Yea...the (our) $500+ billion is gone, for sure. But there was a second set of investors that put in something like $750 million(?)...with their intention to complete the IPO, and then cash out. That was the deal that the US govt agreed to subordinate the original loan to the new investor's loan. Didn't that $750 million go away too?
Just thought I read that somewhere (probably FRep).