Groupon appears to be readying itself to expand into food delivery and take on services like GrubHub. Today, the company announced its acquisition of food-delivery service OrderUp and detailed its plans to expand into the $70 billion sector. Founded in 2009, the Baltimore-based OrderUp is live in 40 cities across the country, many of which …
Read More »Groupon Launches Its Own Food Delivery Business, Groupon To Go
Following its acquisition of food delivery service OrderUp earlier this month, Groupon is today announcing its own nationwide delivery and takeout service, Groupon To Go. The program is initially available in Chicago, where it has been in pilot testing with 500 restaurants since March, but the company says it will expand …
Read More »Our Marketplace Obsession And Bubble
Service marketplaces have recently become Silicon Valley darlings. The marketplace model has been a popular way for VCs to efficiently tap into the local economies at scale, specifically the $800 billion home services space. It’s a model that dates back to the initial concept of Yellow Pages in 1883. And it makes sense …
Read More »Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100 At A Cost Of $35M, Shutters Operations In 7 Countries
Some significant downsizing is underway at Groupon, the daily deals and local-commerce site. The company is today announcing that it will be cutting 1,100 jobs — mostly in its sales (aka “deal factory”) and customer service operations — taking a pre-tax charge of $35 million in the process. As part …
Read More »Groupon Slides Nearly 30% On Market Jitters Over CEO Change, Weak Q4 Guidance
It’s a bad deal today for Groupon, the company that built a business around daily deals for goods and services and has since expanded into areas like commerce solutions for small businesses. The company’s stock opened at $2.81 after dropping more than 30% in pre-market trading, on the heels of a triple-whammy of news: a CEO …
Read More »Groupon Names Rich Williams CEO In Mixed Earnings Report
The deal service Groupon on Tuesday announced CEO and co-founder Eric Lefkofsky would step down, and Rich Williams would take over the company immediately. The company said Lefkofsky would return to the role of chairman of the board. Williams told TechCrunch in an interview that he plans to renew investment in …
Read More »A Startup’s Guide To International Expansion
Startups can now reach international markets almost immediately at launch. Product/market fit is geographically, industry and company-size agnostic — SaaS makes your product adoption almost instantaneous. Although this early global traction can happen organically at the beginning, the reality is that startups must be strategic about systematically scaling from a local …
Read More »Groupon Exits Sweden, Denmark, Norway And Finland In Ongoing Global Retreat
Yet more news of closures at Groupon, the daily deals and local commerce platform. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that the company has ceased operations immediately in four more countries, all in Europe, where its business has been in decline: Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The news comes amid a …
Read More »Why Groupon Needs To Go Private To Rebuild Its Vision
After seeing big and small competitors collapsing or withdrawing altogether from the race, Groupon still enjoys an undisputed leadership in the deal space. However, with slow growth in North America, and no growth at all in the international markets, the once fastest-growing company in history is having a hard time …
Read More »Venture Capital Is Terrible At Online Shopping
Another day, another series of Silicon Valley e-commerce explosions: Gilt Groupe just sold for a fraction of its valuation (and its capital raised) and One Kings Lane is reportedly the next to die. Previously it was Fab.com being sold for nothing after severely underperforming — ah, Fab, the first billion-dollar retail “unicorn” born with …
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