Posted on Monday, December 06 2010 @ 16:28 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
It doesn't happen a lot that startups reject multi-billion dollar takeover bids but that's exactly what happened last week when Google offered a $6 billion deal to Groupon, a 2-year old Chicago-based website that offers localized daily deals. Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason reportedly had concerns about the strategic direction his company would take under Google's management and what could happen to his employees, therefore the company will decide next year whether to go the route of an IPO instead.
Groupon Inc., which rejected a Google Inc. takeover last week, is betting it can keep increasing its valuation after walking away from a deep-pocketed suitor, something Facebook Inc. pulled off and Yahoo! Inc. failed to do.
Groupon, the Chicago-based provider of online coupons, spurned an offer of as much as $6 billion that included performance incentives, a person familiar with the matter said last week. The startup will decide next year whether to go the route of an initial public offering instead, the person said.
More details
at Bloomberg.
