Less than two years ago Groupon.com turned down an offer of $6 Billion dollars from Google.
It was just over a year ago that Groupon.com went public at $20 a share, given it an implied valuation of $13 Billion.
After reporting declining revenue yesterday shares of Groupon sank below $3 a share today down some 30% from the previous close, giving the company a $1.8 Billion dollar valuation.
So the company went from a $6 Billion dollar offer from Google which if it would have taken all Google stock for, which was at $570 at that time, they would have made an extra 20% as shares of Google are currently $663.
Instead the company is only valued at $1.8 billion and shares are not trending well.
Greed is alive and well – and often hurts.
The $6bn offer was the jackpot – yet, they wanted more – thought they could be a $100bn business. But why wasn’t $6bn in 2 years from zero enough?
…Why is it that stupendous success can so often lead to incomprehensible stupidity? (sigh)
It’s amazing that an easily-copyable business model like Groupon was ever offered $6 billion in the first place. When compared to the recent purchase of LucasFilm by Disney for $4 billion, something just doesn’t seem right.
@Grim good point. They should have taken the 6B and run, don’t think they will recover. Saved G a lot of money.
This also means Google would have overpaid by more than $4 billion. So you have to wonder about that aspect too. All these payouts by big companies to relatively small upstarts… it’s all a little maddening. Bet the insiders at Groupon wish they could have a do over. Easy come, easy go. Do we ever learn from our mistakes people? Pets.com anyone?
Yet Yelp turned down 1/2 billion from Google in December 2009:
Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars
http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/20/yelp-walks-away-from-google-deal-and-half-a-billion-dollars
yet, it did the right thing, its market cap near $1.12 billion now, one could surmise. That is the deal that got away from Google.
A while back , Last 2 years everywhere you looked on the web you would see groupon ads.
With all the hype and over inflated interest ,(A lot of domains were regged with couponing in mind)Which is common it does not surprise me the actual worth is starting to shine through.