Google May Be Near Its Largest Acquisition Yet: Groupon

Google may be close to its largest acquisition to date.

Sources familiar with the matter tell the New York Times and All Things Digital that Google has offered between $5 and $6 billion for the acquisition of online daily deal site Groupon.

Although the outcome of the negotiations is still uncertain, Google's Groupon purchase would make it the search giant's most expensive yet, nearly double the cost of its $3.1 billion DoubleClick buy.

Groupon, its name a portmanteau of the words "group" and "coupon," has been growing at a rapid clip since its launch two years ago, taking in an estimated $50 million per month in revenue and attracting over 12 million users.

Groupon turned down a $2 billion bid from Yahoo, the New York Times reports, and Google initially offered the company between $3 and 4 billion. It later added a few more billion dollars to its bid "in the face of Groupon's resistance."

The site offers daily discounts on services, goods, and food from local retailers with a catch: to get the deal, a minimum number of users must sign up for the sale, introducing a social element to the bargain shopping.

Google's appetite for Groupon likely lies in the titan's desire to capitalize on local online advertising opportunities, a space in which Google has so far had only moderate success.

Comments

[Fourth Horseman]

03:12 AM on 12/01/2010

It's like I said, google and all these other titan tech companies have nothing left as far as innovation goes.

So they buy up companies and want to lock down the rest of the web to make sure they stay on top.

Pathetic.

[Sans Octavian]

06:15 AM on 12/01/2010

Are you serious? The multitude of what Google is capable of is only slightly known to the public. You are right on the notion of locking up the ad space on the internet, but Google is constantly inventing and re-inventing tech.

[lilylee86]

02:26 AM on 12/01/2010

That is nice..
WinPST Share Outlook..

[MyTake]

08:06 PM on 11/30/2010

Well, when Google ran their Ireland "INCOME SHIFTING" scam (technique borrowed from Exxon) they reduced their federal taxation across all of the countries they operate in down to a paltry 2.4%.

So while the U.S. is in such severe deficit and debt, the GOOGLE boys and girls are living high with bonuses all around because they scammed the tax man in the United States. Of course, they can scoop up a company with billions garnered from this tax avoidance scam.

So while the U.S. middle class has to pick up the slack in federal taxation that GOOGLE, Exxon and others avoided, we should be just so happy to applaud this corporation.

Why is it that the EU takes runs at Microsoft and Google monopolies but the lousy U.S. Justice System turns a blind eye?

Oh, I forgot, the CORPORATE STATE controls Congress and Senate politicians and Eric Holder is the fox guarding the Corporate hen house in the U.S..

[booboo111]

08:21 PM on 11/30/2010

I fly a Liberian flag on my yacht for the same reason, and my crew is manned with illegals for two dollars an hour which gets sent to Mexico and points south. Only "little people" pay taxes.

[Jhb6644]

05:03 PM on 11/30/2010

Smart move, Groupon is a great marketing idea/tool. Next they should go after Amazon...the king of online marketing. Google is the new elephant in the room.

[Ivyleaguequaker]

05:32 PM on 11/30/2010

Enough is enough, NO, they should stay away from Amazon!

[Reasonable Chap]

04:19 PM on 11/30/2010

Wow, I had no idea Groupon was so big! They've somehow managed to make it still feel like you're in on some sort of secret. Groupon rocks! They have some pretty eccentric writers over there, which I've enjoyed even on days when I was not interested in the deal.

[Pucker]

04:04 PM on 11/30/2010

Google is the new Microsoft (which was the new IBM).

I don't know if everyone else has caught on yet, but it's going to be real cool to hate Google very soon, and given the amount of information they know about you....it's probably warranted hate.

[Ivyleaguequaker]

05:30 PM on 11/30/2010

I'm on the verge, I like privacy.

[JackHoffman]

08:09 PM on 11/30/2010

It''s already cool to hate them.

[patmweav]

03:18 PM on 11/30/2010

I thought google's largest acquisition was Earth

[JackHoffman]

08:09 PM on 11/30/2010

lol

[booboo111]

08:22 PM on 11/30/2010

True, but the rest of the solar system has yet to be mapped, from street level, anyway.

[kramereng]

03:12 PM on 11/30/2010

I'm about to have some very rich friends :p

[Charlie Ham]

02:53 PM on 11/30/2010

i love groupon!! i check it every day they have sweet deals! last week they had half off at nordstrom rack!

[booboo111]

08:23 PM on 11/30/2010

I bought one shoe and got the other free!

[harveyr2]

02:36 PM on 11/30/2010

$5,000,000,000 is a lot of money for a nascent web business that does not have proprietary technology or a strong brand presence.

The only rational valuation would be to include Groupon results within google search results. Otherwise, google is paying far too much.

[JackHoffman]

08:10 PM on 11/30/2010

They have users. Technology is worthless without users.

[howitis]

04:39 PM on 12/01/2010

people said the same thing about youtube when google acquired it...

[Finesse17a]

02:34 PM on 11/30/2010

Mark these words; In the next three years there will be a concerted effort to kill net neutrality. The companies leading this assault will be Verizon, Apple, Comcast and Google. You can just wait and see or do a little research and see the future for yourself.
I have been watching them for the past three years. They are consolidating power, assets (other companies and internet infrastructure), lawmakers and laws, and are writing legislation for the most basic and important internet functions.
If you care, pay attention to them. If you do not, be prepared for a 'tiered internet' where your middle class dollars will not be able to do anything put purchase from the internet. All other functions will cost dollars that you will not be able to commit. In other words, a 'premium internet service might cost $1,500/mo. Could you afford it? If you cannot afford it, you will not be able to create content, participate in ecommerce, you would not be able to comment or input anything meaningful (like the truth and facts) and many other problems like people owning any content that you do happen to post (oh, that is already happening).
Be prepared.

[sprtakis69]

01:59 PM on 11/30/2010

OK, let's all collaborate here, in the privacy of this comment board, to create something spectacular to sell to google!

Who has the first idea?

Dang it! Don’t ya just wish something like groupon would’ve been something you just thought of and created!

Ok, back to being a work-a-bee!

[PhilTListener]

03:32 PM on 11/30/2010

Gropeon.

[darquelourd]

01:49 PM on 11/30/2010

gee, when will it ALL just go away? our clusterf*ck society I mean ...

[cmalloy]

09:45 PM on 11/30/2010

Second that.

[FalstaffsMind]

01:47 PM on 11/30/2010

Groupon is larger than Youtube?

[Aabby]

02:19 PM on 11/30/2010

i think it’s worth more ( with less memebrs) because it actually sells things.

[ArkayMI]

01:45 PM on 11/30/2010

"Pardon me, would you have any Groupon (Grey Poupon) "

"But, of course"