Groupon Acqhires Uptake To Build Out Palo Alto Office

Groupon is acquiring travel startup Uptake.

Liz Gannes at AllThingsD broke the news. We spoke to a source with knowledge of the deal who confirmed the details of the AllThingsD report. The purchase price was apparently between $10 and $20 million.

Uptake helps users plan their vacations, offering both content on the Uptake website and recommendations from your social graph. Our source says this is a classic “acqhire”, where Groupon is more interested in the staff than it is in the technology — the entire 20-person Uptake team will be joining the Groupon office in Palo Alto where the group-buying can tap into their expertise in travel, as well as their general engineering and local search knowledge. However, none of Uptake’s code will be reused.

Groupon confirmed the deal via email, without offering any details.

“Groupon has acquired Uptake, and we’re excited to continue to build the Palo Alto engineering team with an all-star roster of startup founders and experts in the mobile and social space,” the company said in a statement.

Uptake has raised $14 million; from investors including Trinity Ventures and Shasta Ventures.

[additional reporting by Colleen Taylor]