Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that is localized to major geographic markets in the United States and Canada. Launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston and New York City and Toronto. As of October 2010, Groupon serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America.
The idea for Groupon was created by now-CEO Andrew Mason. The idea subsequently gained the attention of his former employer, Eric Lefkofsky, who provided $1 million in "seed money" to develop the idea. Groupon is growing fast with a projected revenue of $500 million for 2010. At just under 2-years old in April of 2010, the company was valued at $1.35 billion.
Groupon also owns several international operations, all of which were originally deal-of-the-day services similar to it, but then re-branded under the Groupon name after acquisition; these have included the European-based MyCityDeal (17 May 2010), the South American ClanDescuento (22 June 2010), the Japanese service Qpod.jp, and Russian Darberry.ru (both on 17 August 2010) Prior to these acquisitions, Groupon had bought out the mobile technology company Mob.ly.
Groupon Inc., a Chicago-based Internet-coupon service with more than 35 million users, walked away from an acquisition offer from Google Inc. yesterday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The proposed acquisition fell through amid hesitation by Groupon's founders, said the person, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. The startup will decide next year whether to sell shares in an initial public offering instead, the person said. The discussions could resume if both sides overcome their differences.
Google had offered $6 billion, including incentives that would be paid to the target's managers if performance targets were met, people familiar with the matter had said this week.
Groupon would have helped its new owner expand in the $133 billion U.S. local-ad market and lessen its reliance on Internet-search advertising.
"Clearly Google wants to get into the local space and Groupon was one way," said Aaron Kessler, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC in San Francisco, who has a "buy" rating on Google and doesn't own it. "I don't think from a Google perspective that if they miss out, that there's not other ways to get into local."
Groupon Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mason had the biggest say in this decision as largest shareholder, according to another person familiar with the talks. He had concerns about the strategic direction the company would take under new management, the person said. Mason also was concerned about what could happen to merchant relationships and his employees, according to the person.
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