US Groupon buys "Ticket-monster"

Groupon, which has long not been seen in the media, has recently announced that it will spend $260 million to buy South Korea's group buying website "Ticket-monster" from rival LivingSocial.

In the 260 million dollar bid, Groupon will pay 100 million of dollars in cash, plus 160 million dollars in their own shares, and after the completion of the acquisition, the South Korean group purchase website can still retain its own brand and management team, the current CEO Danielshin will continue to be the head of the company. The company's headquarters will still be in the South Korean capital Seoul, the number of employees around 1000 people.

The acquisition of Ticket-monster is not unexpected. Last November 7, Groupon had bought LivingSocial South Korea as a whole, and the company was also Ticket-monster's parent company. In addition, it is reported that LivingSocial Korean company's Malaysian business, before the acquisition has been split, is not part of the trading plan.

Ticket-monster's financial performance is not ideal, the media said, Groupon bought the site, not for the current products and services, but for future development plans.

Ticket-monster

Ticket-monster was founded in 2010 and was acquired by LivingSocial, an Amazon-controlled group buying site in 2011. According to Groupon, the site has a revenue of 78.5 million dollars and a loss of 39 million dollars in the three quarter of 2013 years ago. It is reported that all losses come from stock rewards for employees and management and other Non-cash expenses.

Groupon said in a regulatory filing that excluding off Non-cash spending, Ticket-monster could actually achieve a profit-and-loss balance in net profits. For a company that was born less than four years ago, the result was excellent.

Although they are in the field of group buying, LivingSocial's business model has less profit margins than Groupon. Groupon focuses on discounts on local merchant services, but the Ticket-monster website offers more physical goods at discounted prices.

According to statistics, the Ticket-monster site group purchase items, 65% for physical goods, 20% to 25% for local merchant services, the rest of the business, including tourism. In contrast, three of the quarter's earnings showed that only 40% of Groupon's revenue came from physical-product deals.

Correspondingly, the share of Ticket-monster sales is also lower, Groupon said in a regulatory filing that would help ticket-monster raise the proportion.

In addition, LivingSocial will be able to sell off the Groupon common stock that it acquired in the deal.

LivingSocial, the two biggest monopolies in the US buying market, is worse off than Groupon, which has lost $81 million trillion in the first half of last year and has had to inject capital to support the LivingSocial.