Groupon, the increasingly popular daily deal site, has purchased mobile development firm Mob.ly for an undisclosed amount and opened up an office in Palo Alto. The Chicago-based company (which recently snagged a round of funding led by DST with a $1.35 billion valuation) has also hired the former Netflix executive, Mark Johnson, as their new Chief Data Officer. Johnson and Mob.ly will both be based in the new Palo Alto office.
“Now there is no excuse to not work for us,” Groupon founder’s and CEO Andrew Mason said in a press release. “And Chicago is still super cool. Did you know that we have the largest water filtration plant in the continental United States? Great city, can’t understand why people wouldn’t want to move here, but whatever — now we’re in the Valley too.”
Mob.ly, formerly known as Goodrec, is a mobile application service that launched at Techcrunch 50 in 2008. The company, which works with clients to create mobile applications from top to bottom (from conception to design and testing), has built apps for clients like Comedy Central, NBC, Digg and Yahoo!
Groupon growth’s has been impressive (the company is expected to hit roughly $350 million this year in revenues), almost impressive as the evolution of its valuation. Back in December the company was valued at roughly $250 million, that’s just 18.5% of its current valuation. Beyond adding to its warchest, Groupon has been building out its company’s services this month. This week the company rolled out a new rewards program to create extra incentives for loyal followers, you get points for viewing and buying deals, those points can be used for discounts with partner business or to pay for future deals. With the acquisition of Mob.ly, Groupon will no doubt be expanding its mobile functionality. Currently, the iPhone app only allows users to find and purchase nearby deals, search for those in different cities and redeem coupons.
Groupon features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in more than 565 cities around the world. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, Groupon can offer deals that aren’t available elsewhere. Groupon brings buyers and sellers together in a fun and collaborative way that offers the consumer an unbeatable deal, and businesses a large number of new customers. To date, it has saved consumers more than $300 million and claims it...
Andrew Mason is the founder of Groupon as well as The Point, the collective action platform from which Groupon was born. Andrew is originally from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Mason moved to Chicago in 1999 to attend Northwestern University and graduated with a degree in music. He went on to attend University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy only to drop out three months later.
Mob.ly, formerly Goodrec, is a mobile and online recommendation service that provides brief, to-the-point recommendations from friends and trusted sources that launched at TechCrunch50 in 2008. The service makes it easy to make, find and remember actionable recommendations from anywhere: online, via its iPhone application or from any mobile browser. Mobly was acquired by Groupon in May 2010.
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