Google Said to Have Bought Groupon for $2.5 Billion

Over the weekend a rumor popped up saying that Google had acquired the deals site Groupon for $2.5 billion, a rather modest sum compared to some of the valuations the site had been seeing.

The deal may or may not have closed, depending on the source, and the price may be higher than the reported sum, but something is definitely happening between the two companies.

The fact that an acquisition of the increasingly popular deals site by Google has been billed as one of the best moves the giant tech company could undertake only adds the number of people wanting this to be true.

At this time, the rumors of the closed deal are unconfirmed and neither company has commented so take them with a grain of salt.

Groupon has been billed as the fastest growing company ever and exploded in usage and, importantly and un-characteristically for a web startup, in revenue, especially this year.

The company operates in a couple dozen countries already and is the market leader in most, despite no shortage of competitors. The site's success can be attributed to the simplicity of its design, it offers discounts on items or services from various small businesses only if a set number of people pledge to buy the product.

In return, Groupon typically gets to keep 50 percent of the sale price. The site is estimated to be making around $50 million in revenue per month, however, the figure has been rising fast.

Google is not a player in e-commerce, but has been looking to expand its business beyond advertising. It's also sitting on huge amounts of cash so it can afford to buy Groupon without breaking a sweat.

While the deal could prove a good one for Google, the company is getting increased scrutiny from the anti-trust authorities and a multi-billion deal, even in a market where it has no involvement in.