Groupon Goes Independent, Rejects Google’s Take-Over Offer

According to multiple sources, Groupon has rejected a take-over deal from Google. Groupon believes that they can increase their valuation to an amount that is higher than the $6 billion that Google reportedly had offered them. The $6 billion had included performance incentives.

This is a move that is similar to what Facebook had done with Yahoo! Facebook had refused a $1 billion offer from Yahoo! several years ago. Now Facebook is worth close to 40 times that amount. Yahoo! refused a $47.5 billion offer from Microsoft two years ago, but now they are worth less than half of that offer.

The reason why Groupon had refused Google’s offer is that he was concerned about strategic directions that would happen under new management. He also had a lot of concern about what would happen to his employees. Groupon has about 35 million users across 300 different global markets and may hit $500 million in revenue this year.

[Bloomberg]

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