Groupon Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis May Have Conflict Of Interest

Ted Leonsis is a former AOL executive that owns the NBA Washington Wizards. Leonsis is currently a Vice Chairman at Groupon Inc., but he is also an investor in competitor LivingSocial. Leonsis also has ties to LivingSocial’s board of directors. This could be a major conflict of interest.

Leonsis has been serving as a director at Groupon since June 2009 and became a vice chairman in April 2011. Leonsis also serves as a partner at Revolution Growth. Revolution Growth is an investment company run by AOL co-founder Steve Case. Revolution Growth has stake in LivingSocial as well. Leonsis’ involvement in Groupon and LivingSocial may be questioned since Groupon recently filed to go public.

[BusinessWeek]

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