Groupon Reject $6 Billion Google Offer ‎????



I'm laughing at all the morons posting comments to that story

Are these people crazy? I went to the site to see what's really going on. There is only a few expensive deal in the area where I live and work. The website is obviously so simple, and this costs 6 billions?
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groupon just goofed. they were offered a ridiculous amount of money for a hard to scale, easily copyable business model by a mega powerful corporation. Stupid, bold move on their part, they'll start crumbling in less than 5 years I bet
 
not everyone wants to sit around for the rest of their lives with money, some people wanna get more and google has enough properties, was a good choice of facebook and twitter to reject google's offers. why can't this be the same deal. people who say groupon is stupid perhaps don't have enough foresight to see what a very well visited website is worth in promoting other projects.
 
I would have took that money and laughed all the way to the bank, to the grave, to heaven.
 
Personally I was happy to see this. Google tends to screw up whatever they touch. Plus I'm pretty sure I read that groupon is grossing 2 billion a year as it is... even if they do fall in the next 5 years, their revenue will be surely exceed the slightly less than 6 billion that Google offered them.
 
dchuk said:
groupon just goofed. they were offered a ridiculous amount of money for a hard to scale, easily copyable business model by a mega powerful corporation. Stupid, bold move on their part, they'll start crumbling in less than 5 years I bet
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Correct. Look, there is no comparative advantage that Groupon has other than brand. That's it. And it's TWO YEARS OLD!!!

What if Google decides to launch Googlepon? Are you not going to trust their relationship with small businesses?

I agree with everything above except the five years.
 
I'll sell my website for a discounted price.
$3 billion, that good?
 
dchuk said:
groupon just goofed. they were offered a ridiculous amount of money for a hard to scale, easily copyable business model by a mega powerful corporation. Stupid, bold move on their part, they'll start crumbling in less than 5 years I bet
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I guess time will tell. But why can't they completely dominate the coupon service like they mostly already are.

Look at services like eBay, Paypal, Facebook, Youtube. Anyone can easily copy all of those business models, yet they all have completely dominated for a long time now.
 
I lol when people think the $6billion number is to high. It is only 3x their revenue, and i think Google would make their money back within a few years especially if they integrate groupon into their "maps" and local stuff.

Bottom line, because of their rejection... Groupon is fucked. Guaranteed G tries to "copy" it within a year.
 
r3p1v said:
I guess time will tell. But why can't they completely dominate the coupon service like they mostly already are.

Look at services like eBay, Paypal, Facebook, Youtube. Anyone can easily copy all of those business models, yet they all have completely dominated for a long time now.
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I think the issue is that big players like Google and Facebook are already in a position to leverage their massive userbase and infrastructure to provide substantial competition for Groupon. Considering that Google is obviously interested in getting into this arena, how long before they pump out something similar? They aren't going to abandon their plans for expansion just because they can't have Groupon.

Also, re: Facebook. Anyone remember Myspace?
 
TFLNetwork said:
I lol when people think the $6billion number is to high. It is only 3x their revenue, and i think Google would make their money back within a few years especially if they integrate groupon into their "maps" and local stuff.

Bottom line, because of their rejection... Groupon is fucked. Guaranteed G tries to "copy" it within a year.
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Agreed 100%, as I've said on twitter... Groupon walked away from a guaranteed 6BB for an uncertain future. And where is the data to back the 2BB year over year figure anyway? The business model is built around deal hawks, not people who would become repeat customers. It's easily replicatable, and their adspend, however high, cannot unmake Google's massive userbase through Google Maps, Google Local or Google places.

Tie into it the fact that Groupon has 3200 employee overhead making, based on their figures, about $200k employee. Google, on the other hand, makes 1.2M per employee. (And only pays 4% in taxes through their 'dutch sandwich').

Google may have failed with buzz but they have time and cash on their side to trump the business model and put Groupon out of business in a few years. Had Groupon taken the deal, they'd have cash and after the expiration of their noncompete agreement... could go off and build new, well-monetized startups in the future to make even more money.
 
r3p1v said:
I guess time will tell. But why can't they completely dominate the coupon service like they mostly already are.

Look at services like eBay, Paypal, Facebook, Youtube. Anyone can easily copy all of those business models, yet they all have completely dominated for a long time now.
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Retailmenot has been around a long time. Granted they haven't gotten to scale as fast or as large as Groupon, but their adspend has been a relative fraction and they have 1/10th as many employees and overhead.

Deal hawks will always pursue deals. Groupon provides small business deal hawks who, in turn, haven't proven yet to be 'repeat' customers at regular retail prices. SMB's can't go into the red on a Groupon "deal" if it won't produce long term value for their business and I think the writing will be on the wall for them sooner than later.

eBay and Paypal had marketshare before Google. Youtube is a Google property already.

Facebook was wise to pass on the offers it has been presented and, as of today, presents the single largest threat to Google because it's user base is addicted and fanatic about returning to the site.

I just don't see Groupon having that kind of leverage or fanaticism in it's userbase.
 
Google will copy it, no doubt. Google is slowly starting to take serious interest in local and mobile which is a huge tie into what Groupon represents. Google will try to copy it, wither they bomb or succ. is yet to be seen.

One thing I know, they fail at a lot of what they do. I'm sure Checkout breaks even/make slight profit for them as well as a Orkut and a few other things that never really took off. The biggest succ. for them are the things they came out with years ago such as adwords, search, maps, gmail, etc.

Honestly, I would have sold out if I was Groupon, but to each their own. No sense in letting Google, Yahoo/Bing, retailmenot and livingsocial all taking cuts of your market from you.. sell it out and reinvest.
 
phillian said:
Agreed 100%, as I've said on twitter... Groupon walked away from a guaranteed 6BB for an uncertain future. And where is the data to back the 2BB year over year figure anyway? The business model is built around deal hawks, not people who would become repeat customers. It's easily replicatable, and their adspend, however high, cannot unmake Google's massive userbase through Google Maps, Google Local or Google places.

Tie into it the fact that Groupon has 3200 employee overhead making, based on their figures, about $200k employee. Google, on the other hand, makes 1.2M per employee. (And only pays 4% in taxes through their 'dutch sandwich').

Google may have failed with buzz but they have time and cash on their side to trump the business model and put Groupon out of business in a few years. Had Groupon taken the deal, they'd have cash and after the expiration of their noncompete agreement... could go off and build new, well-monetized startups in the future to make even more money.
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correction mang, its called a dublin sandwhich.. also known as a double irish.
 
What google should do is go and buy living social for only 1 billion, and just tap into their existing userbase.
 
The owner has gigantic balls for stepping away from such a tempting offer.. Money is not everything and who knows the Groupon concept can be worth more than $6 billions in the future. The combination of increase internet usage (mobile tech in particular) and the stagnant economy, Groupon could be very profitable.
 
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