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Rachel Hutton, Minneapolis City Pages: On the heels of Groupon's recent lawsuit regarding illegal expiration dates, the company is taking more heat. The Wall Street Journal found that merchants who used deal-a-day sites "regularly absorbed as much as 75% of a deal's cost and often saw little in the way of repeat business." In typical deals, buyers pay $25 for $50 worth of goods--$12.50 goes the to deal site for, uh, sending out an email, and $12.50 goes to the retailer to provide $50 worth of goods or services. But now, with so many deal-a-day sites competing for business, savvy merchants are negotiating more favorable splits.