It’s not all about the prospect of Groupon getting bought – now replete with a $950 million investment, the daily deals service is acquiring, too.
Specifically, it’s buying three smaller, country-specific counterparts to buy itself an expansion to India, Israel and South Africa.
The company is buying South Africa’s India’s SoSasta (11 cities), Israel’s Grouper (Tel Aviv region) and South Africa’s Twangoo (nine cities) for undisclosed amounts. Each “will transition to the Groupon brand name and site design in coming months”, the company says.
Groupon president Rob Solomon, in the announcement: “Collective buying is in its infancy in India, Israel and South Africa and we see strong potential.” The buys take Groupon in to two established internet markets and one growing one.
More importantly, it signals that newly-resourced Groupon is well-stacked to go buying up the growing crop of smaller daily deals services around the world. There is a veritable patchwork of such operators out there, many of which have been in play for investment by Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and eBay.
Groupon says it now employs over 4,000 people worldwide.