The behind-the-scenes combination of DST and Groupon: Investment flexibility welcomed by entrepreneurs

Beijing time April 20 morning news, according to foreign media reports,　　The Russian Internet investment Group, DST, yesterday announced it would invest $135 million in US $1 billion on the site, but sources said DST was not the only company offering an olive branch to Groupon and was willing to buy shares at a high price, prompting Groupon to work with DST for other reasons.　　Other private-equity firms are also seeking to buy Groupon, including Providence Equity and venture capital Marvell Crossover Ventures (hereinafter "TCV"), according to sources. DST scares other rivals by offering higher valuations to startups. Last summer, the company invested 10 billion of billions of dollars in the value of Facebook.　　Last fall, the company invested $300 million in a Facebook game developer, Zynga, allegedly valuing the site at $3 billion trillion. But the high valuation strategy does not seem to work. Sources said the valuation of Providence Equity has also reached about $1 billion trillion, while TCV's valuation allegedly exceeded $1 billion trillion. As a result, the Groupon ended up spending DST not just because of its high bid. "Over the last period of time, DST has subverted the entire investment field," said Andrew Mason, Groupon's CEO Mason. They are adept at discovering good companies and giving behind-the-scenes support in the way entrepreneurs want them to, who will not haggle over the terms of their cooperation and have a very flexible way of investing. In addition, Mason also said that his cooperation with DST is very happy, that DST people "very smart." (Xiao Wei)