Google wants to be in the online group buying space, badly, and with good reason. The company may have not succeeded in purchasing the current leader in the space, Groupon, which has spurned a $6 billion buy-out offer in a bid to stay independent and shoot for the stars, but it seems determined to get in on the action – through acquisition – regardless.
According a report from the New York Post, citing a source familiar with the matter, Google is talking to smaller Groupon rivals about a potential acquisition.
Companies like LivingSocial and BuyWithMe, both privately-held and backed by tens of millions in venture capital, are some of the names that are dropped in various reports, but there are of course plenty of smaller Groupon competitors to go around.
LivingSocial, for one, seems an unlikely target – it has just raised $175 million from Amazon.
BuyWithMe has raised $21.5 million to date, and interim President David Wolfe told the New York Post that he wouldn’t comment on whether he was speaking to Google, saying only that he believes Google definitely needs to enter the coupon advertising market (we agree).
Another potential bet in our opinion could be Whaleshark Media, which operates a marketplace for coupons and deals and owns Deals.com, CouponShare and Deals2Buy, among other sites.
The company just raised roughly $90 million to pursue its roll-up strategy, and Whaleshark Media also just acquired coupon search engine company RetailMeNot.
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Needless to say, we’re all over this.
Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...
BuyWithMe is the premier group buying website where leading local merchants offer exclusive limited time offers to members of the BuyWithMe community. Through the power of its numbers, BuyWithMe negotiates handpicked group discounts for its customers to access at spas, restaurants, health clubs, bars and other local activities in their city. BuyWithMe currently publishes daily deals in 12 major DMAs, including Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New York, and San Diego. BuyWithMe is...
LivingSocial is the social commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals, a group buying program that invites people and their friends to save up to 90 percent each day at their favorite restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels and other local attractions in major cities. LivingSocial has an extensive user base of more than 85 million, and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
RetailMeNot, Inc. (www.retailmenot.com/corp) is the world’s leading marketplace for online coupons and deals. The company’s websites enable consumers across the globe seeking to save money to find hundreds of thousands of offers from retailers. RetailMeNot, Inc. experienced more than 450 million consumer visits to its sites in 2012. The RetailMeNot, Inc., portfolio of coupon and deal websites includes http://www.RetailMeNot.com, the leading online coupon site in the United States; http://www.VoucherCodes.co.uk, the leading online coupon site in the United Kingdom; http://www.Deals.com...
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