Groupon acquires a beleaguered LivingSocial

Chicago-based Groupon announced on Wednesday that is has entered into an agreement to acquire D.C.’s LivingSocial. Groupon made the announcement inside a third quarter earnings report.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Instead, Groupon said “the acquisition consideration is not material.” In other words, the deal wasn’t anything to write home about, at least in financial terms. The deal bringing together these two erstwhile rivals is expected to close next month. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, Groupon expects to acquire about 1 million customers and around 180 employees from the Amazon-backed LivingSocial. It’s not clear if LivingSocial will retain an office in the District.
The LivingSocial that Groupon is acquiring is very different from what it looked like at its peak. LivingSocial was once a crown jewel of the #dctech scene — raising over $928 million in nine rounds. But then came the decline and a recurring pattern of layoffs sometimes described as a company “turnaround.”
Now, perhaps, LivingSocial’s greatest legacy in #dctech is a whole spinoff world of startup founders who previously worked for the deals giant. Think Alan Clifford, cofounder at Galley, or Susan Tynan, founder of Framebridge. And that’s just to name a couple — the Washington Post chronicled this pattern here.