Atairos to invest in Groupon; potential Comcast partnership

Atairos to invest in Groupon; potential Comcast partnership

1912
0
SHARE

MONDAY: Exclusive reports from Market Watch said Groupon shares have taken a 6% rise during pre-market trade – following news from an independent investment fund, Atairos, to invest worth US$ 250 million.

The firm is run by Comcast Corp.’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) former chief financial officer, Micheal Angelakis. It has capital commitments of about $4.1 billion, with $4 billion coming from Philadelphia-based Comcast.

Following the investment; the deal might result into a union.

“Groupon is an established leader in connecting customers with local businesses. The potential in combining Groupon’s local expertise with Comcast’s vast subscriber and advertiser network is something we look forward to closely exploring together.” – Comcast Cables’ CEO, Neil Smit

“Our partnership with Atairos will help speed up our transformation while better positioning us to fulfil on our strategy and mission to build the daily routine in local commerce – which we continued to make progress on in the first Q. “I am extremely pleased that a esteemed, long-term oriented partner like Atairos shares our view about the vast opening ahead for Groupon.” – Groupon chief executive, Rich Williams.

INSIGHT: New Chief Executive Rich Williams has augmented the marketing budget to revive and reinvent the company.

UPDATE: Groupon might utilize the money for repurchasing the stock and is looking into purchasing US$ 250 million in convertible debt.

The partnership brings together the nation’s largest cable operator and an early Internet darling that’s attempting to transform itself into a broader online marketplace (Bloomberg).

After a debut on the NASDAQ at $20, Groupon shares have been descending – falling as low as $2.15 earlier this year and closing Friday at $3.92. The shares had been pointing to a higher opening Monday during pre-market. Moreover, in its most recent Q results, Groupon posted a net loss of $46.5 million

SHARE
Previous articleAlaska Air agrees to acquire Virgin America worth US$ 4billion
Next articleHewlett Packard to sell Mphasis to Blackstone
I cover technology, utilities and biotechnology for Markets Morning, and I help out occasionally with other industry sectors. I've written about investment and personal finance topics for more than 20 years from a lowly copywriter to editor-in-chief, so I've done a little bit of everything. For what it's worth, I have a BA from Duke University and an MBA from Rollins College. I'm married with one daughter, and that's worth more than everything else put together.

NO COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY