Google Grapples Groupon

Just a few short months ago, Google offered approximately 6 billion dollars in a buy-out offer for the deal-of-the-day online coupon giant Groupon. Groupon declined the unprecedented offer and stated that they would be conducting an IPO soon afterwards.

Groupon stated that they could raise as much as $1 billion in the IPO, which could come in the second half of 2011, although the exact size had not yet been determined. Groupon is likely to pick Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to lead a second-half IPO that could value the fast-growing daily deals site at $15 billion to $20 billion. Considering the size of the buy-out offer, it was clear that Google had plans to launch into the deal-a-day enterprise with or without Groupon.

Google announced that they will be launching their new Google Offers service. The online coupon site is still in Beta form and is currently only offering deals in Portland, Oregon but will be releasing the service next in New York and to the San Francisco Bay Areas.

At this point in time, Google has no plans of launching the service outside of the US. Clearly Google is waiting to see how much of the market they can pull away from Groupon before expanding too quickly.

It will certainly be an interesting battle as Groupon and Google faceoff to see who will end up dominating the online coupon market. Considering the value of the companies and amount of revenue involved, it looks to be quite entertaining. One thing is for certain. Google does not like competition…There can be only one.

If you are a business in the Portland area, you can sign up for this service here: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googleofferscontact/ Drop us line with your comments regarding the service. We would love to hear about your experience with the new Google Offers.