“A deal, in the $5 billion to $6 billion range, could be struck as soon as this week, these people said, cautioning that the talks could still fall apart,” Rusli and Miller report. “At that price, Groupon — known for its daily discounts — would be one of Google’s largest acquisitions, dwarfing its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, the display advertising giant, in 2007.”
Rusli and Miller report, “Google is one of the few buyers in the technology market that can afford a price that high. According to the company’s third-quarter report, as of Sept. 30, Google had $33.4 billion in cash or cash equivalents on hand.”
Read more in the full article here.
Huh? What the hell are Google gonna try to do with this?
At least they’re not just copying Apple again…
Well, if Google buys it, I won’t be shopping there…
Adios, Groupon!
….and changed their name to Poupon.
It’s a subscription-based, discount notification system. They send notices to mobile devices about discounts in your area.
It’s an ok idea, but worth $5b? I don’t know.
I wonder if they’ll notify you of a cheaper competitor?
“Do you have any Grey Poupon?”
“No, but I do have the new Google Poo Groupon.”
Ok, I found out what Groupon is. $6 BILLION seems high for a web system that offers local coupons if enough the group wanting them meets or exceeds the expected signup for the coupon. Hasn’t this idea been around long before the Internet? Can’t anyone do this for less than $6 BILLION?
Poupon OR Pooped-on?
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They could have built their own version for about $15,000.
Bye bye groupon. You just lost me.
The Dude abides.
Bye bye groupon. You just lost me.
why? if the deals are still interesting to you why does it matter who owns the service?
I thought of using Groupon but they wanted my personal info and now Google wants groupon, glad I didn’t.
Hey, could Google be the new Walmart?
Get the free iPhone app before it starts to suck. Bad.
Google, the Dyson vacuum cleaner of the Internet.
Groupon – co-founded by Greg Grundberg who played the telepathic cop Matt in the TV series Heroes.
Not a lot of people know that.
With the flop of Google TV, and the profitless excursion into mobile, Google returns to its roots: sleazy advertising junk.
@ Michael Caine
No dude. You’re thinking of Yowza, not groupon. Check yoself before you wreck yourself!
On groupon, my wife and I used it all the time. It’s cool but I’ll tell you this, I dont see how it’s worth 1 billion, much less 5 to 6.
Seems to me a lot of Internet companies are over valued nowadays. And for some reason, google likes to over pay, but hey, it’s not our money.
Billion is the new million.
the NYT says their 2010 revenues were $1B. company like groupon has to be throwing off cash left and right. shoot, that thing’s probably worth $4B without any add-on google search revenue…add that to it, and $6B is a steal.
FAIL…