After failing to acquire Groupon with a $6 billion bid, Google is in talks with much smaller rivals of the company, according to The New York Post.
According to analysts, Google was eager to acquire Groupon to gain a stronghold in the fast-growing local advertising market.
In two years, Groupon, the Chicago-based firm the, has expanded to 3,100 employees, 35 million users in 300 markets and more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Recently, it announced that it hired Jason Child, a former Amazon vice-president of finance, as its chief financial officer.
LivingSocial may be an attractive alternative for Google. The company raised $183 million this month from Amazon and LightSpeed Ventures, in a deal that valued the company at more than $1 billion. However, the company reiterated its commitment to being independent.
"From the beginning, we have been on a path to be an independent leader in the social commerce space," Tige Savage, a LivingSocial board member, told DealBook on Dec. 2. "With this Amazon minority investment and partnership, we feel incredibly well positioned in a huge and growing space."
Besides LivingSocial, there are a couple of notable players in the market. BuyWithMe, based in New York, operates in 12 cities. The company has raised over $20 million since it was founded in 2009. Tippr, owned by software company Kashless, operates in 25 markets.
Local online advertising is expected to grow 18 percent, to $16.1 billion, next year, according to the advertising research firm Borrell Associates
.
No comments:
Post a Comment