Groupon, Inc.

Groupon, Inc. is a publicly traded company.
PrivCo specializes in private companies, but includes records on public companies like Groupon, Inc. solely for their private market activity (such as investments into and acquisitions of private companies).

Recent News, Updates, and Analysis

SILVER SPRING NETWORKS' IPO Valuation: $4.50/Share: SILVER SPRING Is "Poster Child" Of 7 Key IPO Red Flags IPO Investors Must Know (& That Foresaw ZYNGA & GROUPON IPO Debacles); Related PrivCo Exclusive: SILVER SPRING'S Controlling V.C. Firm FOUNDATION CAPITAL May Have Misled Investors By Touting Firm's "$12M New Investment In SILVER SPRING At The IPO Price" As "Proof of Confidence" In Ailing Co (PrivCo Reveals For 1st Time FOUNDATION CAPITAL's Hush Side-Deal: SILVER SPRING Quietly Gave FOUNDATION $12M Last Night To "Invest" Today: Misleading the Market? Or A Legal PR Trick That Got A Weak IPO Done? "Silver Spring IPO Has More Red Flags Than A Communist Party Military Parade": Hamadeh
Mar. 2013 Silver Spring Networks, one of the longest waiting IPOs (nearly 21 months since filing in July 2011), has just priced its IPO at $17 per share to raise downsized $81 Million. PrivCo analyzes the Silver Spring IPO filing and financials and concludes for IPO investors that this may well be the "poster child" for what to avoid in considering IPO investments. … Read More »
The TOP 100 ACQUIRERS OF PRIVATE TECH COMPANIES IN 2012: (#1) FACEBOOK (#2) GOOGLE (#3) GROUPON (#4) TWITTER (#5) CISCO (PrivCo Report): 2,357 Private Tech Cos. Were Acquired; Surprises: TWITTER Bought As Many Private Tech Co's As Giant CISCO; SOFTWARE Was #1 Tech Sector, Beating INTERNET; BARCLAYS Ranked #1 M&A I-Bank, KIRKLAND & ELLIS #1 Law Firm For Private Co. Tech M&A Last Year
Feb. 2013 PrivCo has just released Vol. 1 of its exclusive Annual Private Company M&A Report Series: "The Top 100 Acquirers Of U.S. Private Tech Companies In 2012". This comprehensive, 353-page report provides in-depth private company M&A data, rankings, and analytics on 2012's private technology company acquisitions. … Read More »
THE 2012 PRIVATE TECH COMPANY M&A REPORT
Feb. 2013 Who Are the 100 Most Active Buyers Of Private Tech Companies, What Private Tech Companies They're Buying, The Tech Sectors They're Targeting, The Investment Banks and Law Firms They Favorite, and PrivCo Reveals Exactly What They're Paying … Read More »
The 3 Private Companies Groupon or LivingSocial Should Acquire ASAP
May. 2012 Hosts of problems and sub-par performances from Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) and privately-held LivingSocial (PrivCo Ticker: LIVINGP) make it clear the daily deals business model is fundamentally broken. Massive and costly local salesforces (over 6,000 local-merchant telemarketers in Groupon's case), no recurring revenue, and few economies of scale mean the companies are likely heading toward inevitable extinction or a drastic reduction in size and value … Read More »
Groupon: Poster Child of a Premature IPO, Dangers of Dual-Class Supervoting Stock; CFO Must Go: PrivCo
Apr. 2012 Freshly IPO’d Groupon hit yet another stumbling block as the company announced late Friday that its fourth quarter revenue and earnings – which had already missed its own underwriters’ estimates - were even lower than what the Company had previously reported in February. PrivCo breaks down Groupon's re-statement and the dangers of a premature IPO. … Read More »
The Top 10 Largest Venture Capital Rounds of 2011
Jan. 2012 PrivCo, the private company financial data authority, has researched and ranked the Top 10 largest V.C. Funding Rounds of 2011 by size of the round: … Read More »
2011 Tech IPO In Review: From LinkedIn to Zynga
Jan. 2012 2011 was not a great year for IPOs. Domestically, 125 IPOs raised a total $36.3 billion in 2011 compared to $38.7 billion raised by 154 IPOs in 2010. Although total proceeds dipped only slightly (-6.2%), the number of private companies going public took a nosedive, falling over 18%. What does this mean? Fewer companies are going public at higher valuations. This could not be truer for the Tech IPOs of 2011. … Read More »
November 03, 2011: Groupon Prices IPO at $20/Share, Above $16-$18 Range, But Less than Half $50 June Goal; Smallest Internet IPO % Float in History, All But Assuring Opening Pop
Nov. 2011 As expected, Groupon's underwriters just priced its IPO at $20/share, above the $16-$18 range set earlier this month, but a dramatic comedown from initial price talk of $50/share in June when Groupon first filed for its IPO. Groupon is expected to open for trading tomorrow shortly after the opening of stock market trading, where PrivCo expects the stock will open at an initial pop due to behind the scenes engineering by underwriters as well as small retail investor curiosity. PrivCo expected the modest pricing above the stated range - a range that was vastly discounted since June - in order to provide Groupon with a much needed seemingly positive heading Friday morning before trading opens. … Read More »
October 21, 2011 Groupon's 3rd Quarter Financials Filed this Morning; PrivCo.com Analysis: All Key Business Metrics Took Quarterly Sequential Tumble - Again
Oct. 2011 Groupon's 3rd quarter 2011 financials have just been filed this morning. PrivCo.com has crunched the numbers. Summary: Good headline, business still rotten. Aside from slashing marketing spending late-quarter for pre-IPO window dressing, the company's business metrics have all taken a sequential tumble - again. Revenue grew by single digits (just 9.5%) in the quarter sequentially for the first time in the company's history. Groupon's daily deals % revenue share plunged 5 percentage points in the current quarter from the 2nd quarter (from 42.2% to just 37.1%, down from nearly 50% a year ago); revenue per user falls again to just $1.10/month, down from over $5.30/month 2 years ago and $4/month a year ago (and down another 16% sequentially, from $1.30 to just $1.10, an all-time low). Fair value estimate of just $8/share, though IPO will proceed at new reduced target price of $16-$18/share as Groupon issues a groupon to potential IPO investors good for "2/3rds off Groupon shares." … Read More »
October 7, 2011 Update for Groupon, Inc.
Oct. 2011 Groupon filed yet another amendment to its IPO. Among the shocking changes were that Groupon was forced by the SEC to reduce its revenues by more than half (recognizing only its share of merchant deals sold, not the full amount).

We also see in the latest S1 spelled out most clearly for the first time how much Groupon relies upon for short term cash from slowly paying its merchants. … Read More »
Groupon Inc. forced by S.E.C. to restate its revenues to less than half previous amounts
Sep. 2011 On September 22, 2011, Groupon was forced by the S.E.C. to file amended financial statements in connection with its IPO, restating and reducing its revenue to less than half previous figures. Prior to the restatement, Groupon’s revenues were based upon “gross billings”, thus including the 50% cut that Groupon is responsible for paying merchants on each sale. … Read More »
Groupon Running Low on Cash and IPO Likely to be Withdrawn, Nearing Insolvency
Aug. 2011 A new financial research report just released on private company Groupon, Inc. from PrivCo.com concludes that the group buying company faces an imminent need for financing due to a deteriorating cash position, and otherwise resulting in an impending risk of … Read More »
Groupon IPO In Jeopardy Due To Increasing Local Competition, Pricing Pressure, and Legal Threats: New Report
Aug. 2011 A new financial research report released today on private company Groupon Inc., which has filed for a proposed IPO concludes that Groupon's IPO is in serious jeopardy and is likely to be delayed or withdrawn entirely due to a number of serious issues that are causing its business … Read More »

Mergers & Acquisitions

PrivCo's M&A Activity table for Groupon, Inc. displays the mergers and acquisitions involving Groupon, Inc., for example if Groupon, Inc. acquired or was acquired by another entity, any leveraged buyout (LBO), etc.

	Date	Status	Target	Buyer	Deal Type	Price
Details	Apr. 2010	Completed	Groupon, Inc.	Mail.ru Group	Minority Stake Purchase	$135,000,000
Details	May. 2010	Completed	City Deal GmbH¹	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	$214,200,000
Details	May. 2010	Completed	Mob.ly	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Jun. 2010	Completed	ClanDescuento²	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Aug. 2010	Completed	Darberry³	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Aug. 2010	Completed	Qpod.inc	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	$10,200,000
Details	Dec. 2010	Completed	uBuyiBuy⁴	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Dec. 2010	Bid Submitted	Groupon, Inc.⁵	Google Inc.	Acquisition	$5,750,000,000
Details	Dec. 2010	Completed	Beeconomic	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Dec. 2010	Completed	AtlasPost	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Jan. 2011	Completed	Sosata⁶	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Jan. 2011	Completed	Twangoo⁷	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Jan. 2011	Completed	Grouper Ltd.⁸	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	$8,000,000
Details	Jan. 2011	Completed	Groupmore⁹	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Feb. 2011	Completed	Gaopeng.com¹⁰	Groupon, Inc. Yunfeng Capital Tencent Holdings LTD	Joint Venture / Partnership Formed	$8,600,000
Details	Apr. 2011	Completed	Pelago, Inc.¹¹	Groupon, Inc.	Acq-Hire Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Oct. 2011	Completed	Ludic Labs, Inc.	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Dec. 2011	Completed	OpenCal	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Dec. 2011	Completed	Campfire Labs	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Jan. 2012	Completed	Six Times Seven Inc.	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Jan. 2012	Completed	Mertado	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Feb. 2012	Completed	Adku	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	$10,000,000
Details	Feb. 2012	Completed	Jumppost Inc	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Feb. 2012	Completed	Kima Labs, Inc.¹²	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Feb. 2012	Completed	Hyperpublic	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Feb. 2012	Completed	UpTake Networks, Inc.¹³	Groupon, Inc.	Acq-Hire Acquisition	$10,000,000
Details	Mar. 2012	Completed	Transparent Financial Services Inc	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Mar. 2012	Completed	FeeFighters	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Apr. 2012	Completed	Pingpin Inc.	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Apr. 2012	Completed	Ditto.me	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	$6,100,000
Details	May. 2012	Completed	Pospitality LLC	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	May. 2012	Completed	Breadcrumb	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	$12,500,000
Details	Sep. 2012	Completed	Savored	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Dec. 2012	Completed	CommerceInterface, Inc.¹⁴	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Jan. 2013	Completed	Glassmap	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified
Details	Feb. 2013	Completed	MashLogic	Groupon, Inc.	Acquisition	Unspecified

Notes

1	As part of the overall consideration paid, Groupon issued additional shares of its common stock valued at $204.2 million in December 2010 due to the achievement of financial and performance earn-out targets. - Details →
2	Groupon has acquired Chilean deal site ClanDescuento with plans to expand into the Latin American market. - Details →
3	With the acquisition of Darberry, Groupon has launched itself into the Russian marketplace. - Details →
4	Groupon has acquired uBuyiBuy, which will be incorporated into the Groupon brand over the coming months. - Details →
5	Groupon rejected Google's bid, with plans to continue growing independently and to pursue an IPO. - Details →
6	Sosasta.com was launched in October 2010 and is now present in 11 cities - Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi/NCR, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Nagpur, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. - Details →
7	Twangoo is a South African collective buying and deals website. It serves consumers in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria. It would be rebranded to Groupon South Africa in coming months. - Details →
8	Deal amount is estimated. Grouper Ltd. is an Israeli shopping site based on group purchasing power. - Details →
9	Groupmore is Malaysia's premier group buying website. - Details →
10	Groupon, Inc. invested a 40% stake in GaoPeng by means of a joint venture GaoPeng, before this deal, was funded by Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and private-equity firm Yunfeng Capital. Groupon, Inc. is now one of three named companies that have funded GaoPeng. - Details →
11	After the acquisition, Groupon shut down Whrrl, Pelago's main application. - Details →
12	The terms of the deal were not disclosed. - Details →
13	Groupon will bring Uptake's 20 person team into its new operations. - Details →
14	Terms were undisclosed. - Details →

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VC/Funding Activity

PrivCo's VC/Funding Activity table for Groupon, Inc. displays the venture capital rounds, angel investments, debt or other funding raised by Groupon, Inc..

	Date	Investor	Round	Investor Type
	Jan. 2007	Brad Keywell	Seed	Angel / Individual
	Jan. 2007	Eric Lefkofsky	Seed	Angel / Individual
Details		Total Round Seed $1,000,000
	Jan. 2008	New Enterprise Associates	A	Venture Capital
Details		Total Round A¹ $4,800,000
	Mar. 2008	Morgan Stanley Venture Partners	Other	Venture Capital
	Mar. 2008	Gold Hill Capital Management, LLC	Other	Venture Capital
	Mar. 2008	Silicon Valley Bank	Other	Lender
	Mar. 2008	Deutsche Bank	Other	Investment Banking Firm
Details		Total Round Other $20,000,000
	Feb. 2009	Wells Fargo & Company²	Debt Funding	Corporate
	Feb. 2009	Deutsche Bank	Debt Funding	Investment Banking Firm
Details		Total Round Debt Funding Unspecified
	Mar. 2009	Alliance Technology Ventures	Other	Venture Capital
	Mar. 2009	SCP Private Equity Partners	Other	Private Equity
	Mar. 2009	Safeguard Scientifics, Inc.	Other	Private Equity
Details		Total Round Other $3,741,000
	Nov. 2009	New Enterprise Associates	E	Venture Capital
	Nov. 2009	Accel Partners	E	Venture Capital
Details		Total Round E³ $30,000,000
	Apr. 2010	Digital Sky Technologies	F	Venture Capital
	Apr. 2010	Accel Partners	F	Venture Capital
	Apr. 2010	Battery Ventures, L.P.	F	Venture Capital
	Apr. 2010	New Enterprise Associates	F	Venture Capital
Details		Total Round F⁴ $134,900,000
	Jun. 2010	Morgan Stanley Private Equity	D	Private Equity
	Jun. 2010	Draper Fisher Jurvetson	D	Venture Capital
	Jun. 2010	Alstom	D	Corporate
Details		Total Round D $215,000,000
	Jan. 2011	Battery Ventures, L.P.	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Digital Sky Technologies	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	New Enterprise Associates	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Accel Partners	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB)	G	Private Equity & Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Silver Lake Partners	G	Private Equity
	Jan. 2011	Morgan Stanley Venture Partners	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Fidelity Ventures	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Technology Crossover Ventures	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Greylock Partners	G	Venture Capital
	Jan. 2011	Andreessen Horowitz, LLC	G	Venture Capital
Details		Total Round G⁵ $946,000,000
	Feb. 2011	Maveron, LLC	Other	Private Equity & Venture Capital
	Feb. 2011	Ted Leonsis	Other	Angel / Individual
	Feb. 2011	Howard Shultz	Other	Angel / Individual
	Feb. 2011	Matt McCutchen	Other	Angel / Individual
	Feb. 2011	Placido Arango	Other	Angel / Individual
Details		Total Round Other⁶ $17,200,000
	Jul. 2011	Motorola Ventures	Other	Venture Capital
	Jul. 2011	Innovation Endeavors	Other	Venture Capital
	Jul. 2011	Metamorphic Ventures, LLC	Other	Venture Capital
Details		Total Round Other $1,000,000
		Total of Funding Shown Above $1,373,641,000

Notes

1	In January 2008, Groupon issued 6,560,174 shares of Series D preferred stock to New Enterprise Associates in exchange for $4.8 million in cash at $0.73 per share. - Details →
2	D.I.P. financing - Details →
3	In November 2009, Groupon issued 4,406,160 shares of Series E preferred stock in exchange for $30.0 million in cash at $6.82 per share. - Details →
4	In April 2010, Groupon issued 4,202,658 shares of our Series F preferred stock to investors in exchange for a net $134.9 million in cash at $32.12 per share. The majority of the cash raised actually went to insiders including founders Andrew Mason and Eric Lefkofsky. - Details →
5	In December 2010 and January 2011, Groupon issued 30,072,814 aggregate shares of Series G preferred stock to investors in exchange for $946.0 million in cash at $31.59 per share. Nearly all of the cash raised was actually used to provide a cash-out to insiders including founders Andrew Mason and Eric Lefkofsky. Approximately half the round closed in December 2010 and the remainder closed in January 2011. - Details →
6	In February 2011, Groupon issued 1,090,830 shares of non-voting common stock to Howard Shultz and his affiliates, Theodore Leonsis, Matt McCutchen and Placido Arango in exchange for $17.2 million in cash, or $15.795 per share. Groupon retained $0.2 million of the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes. The remaining $17.0 million of these proceeds were used to redeem non-voting common stock from existing stockholders at a purchase price of $15.795 per share. In conjunction with the deal, Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) joined Groupon's board of directors. Total cash raised by Groupon Inc. as of June 30, 2011 including stock option and warrant exercises less cash payments for acquisitions netted $1.12 billion, of which over $940 million was paid out to founders and insiders as cash for part of their stock. - Details →

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Private Companies	209,150
Private Investors	12,004
Private M&A Deals	43,155
VC/Funding Rounds	36,088
Total Data Points	95,786,176

Groupon, Inc.

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Groupon, Inc.

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Mergers & Acquisitions

VC/Funding Activity

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