Citing people with direct knowledge of the matter, The New York Times' DealBook blog says a deal, in the $5 billion to $6 billion range, could be struck as soon as this week. The paper's sources cautioned that the talks still could fall apart.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
NYT: Google reportedly close to buying Groupon
Citing people with direct knowledge of the matter, The New York Times' DealBook blog says a deal, in the $5 billion to $6 billion range, could be struck as soon as this week. The paper's sources cautioned that the talks still could fall apart.
15 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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So where is GCI when it comes to buying new technology companies that ensure the local ad markets will not be further disrupted. We need a visionary.
ReplyDeleteIncredible. Gannett market cap: $3.1 billion. Groupon sold for $5.3 billion to Google. Gannett has a much better database of local businesses... and it gets beat once again, this time badly. With visions of Craigslist, GM must be scratching her head.
ReplyDeleteGroupon must really work to command this type of price. What is the barrier to entry?
11:20,
ReplyDeleteGannett getting beat is no longer a surprise. It's the successes that catch us off guard, since they rarely ever happen. Our failures are expected. Sad.
11:20 -- The barrier to success is smarts and staffing. Groupon is not just a sit-back-and-sell operation that's cold-calling business listings.
ReplyDeleteThe company had an inventive, paradigm-shifting concept to start with. But it succeeded because of a very smart, very active sales staff that works with individual retailers to construct deals, set price points and figure out participation limits to ensure success.
The programming is the easy part. Plenty of similar concepts exist, even within Gannett: http://dailydeal.njbestbuys.com
You could have picked up Groupon for a song last year. Google has all this free cash, and doesn't mind spending it on improvements. Gannett just pockets the excess money and doesn't invest properly.
ReplyDeleteGannett is a chicken sh*t organization run by absentee managers who haven't had an original idea in a lifetime. They are quite willing to sit back and be surrounded and then dominated. It's what they do.
ReplyDeleteBut we have Yahoo! Which none of my customers can afford.
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting outside perspective. Lends more meaningful context to many of these comments:
ReplyDeleteGroupon for $6 Billion? Google Should Just Buy Gannett - CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/40436894
6:43-thanks for that gem. I've been waiting for the big searches to start gobbling up content creators.
ReplyDeleteThe cnbc article made a good case that Groupon was overpriced at $6 billion, waaaay overpriced.
ReplyDeleteGoogle buying Gannett? That would be real interesting. I wonder what changes it would make.
Btw, former chief digital officer, Saridakis is an early investor in this company!
ReplyDelete7:11, that would be something to see. I can only wish.
ReplyDeleteConfirmed...Saridakis is a BIG investor in GP. This guy is unbelievable! I still can't figure out why he even joined Gannett after his killing at Pointroll.
ReplyDeleteSaridakis was a real innovator, and corporate needs to realize that or they are hopeless troglodytes. We are in the midst of an advertising revolution that is sure to take business away from newspapers. Yet newspapers (and GCI is not alone in this) are happy to sit on the sidelines and watch it all happen.
ReplyDeleteIn response to comments about Google paying too much for Groupon. It is not too much. Groupon is a startup that now makes $500 million a year, which means Google paid 10 times earnings for the company. If Google sat back and kept the Groupon business at the current level, they would make back their investment in ten years. But we all know Google isn't going to do that. It will milk this company for all it is worth, and the carnage in local advertising will be clear by q2 next year.
6:10 I think you have a man chrush. The great pudgy one did absolutely NOTHING during his tenure. His claim to fame was selling Gannett a company and then taking his ball and going home. Enough with the pontificating about a guy who moone ever saw and never brought a single dollar to the company. If you don't like my comment then list his many accomplishments so we can all. bask in the glory of Jaba's leadership. I'm waiting.
ReplyDelete