Wait a second, but did Google even buy Groupon (yet)?

One of my best friends and I were talking about the deal aggregator site Groupon because it’s gotten a bit of press recently. (I’m even giving the deal aggregator site a tad of press myself since it annoyed me one day).

Of course it’s going to get press though when there’s rumors that it’s getting bought out by a company that’s worth close to 200 billion dollars. Nonetheless, articles saying the “deal is close” like this article in the Times of India saying they’re close to being bought for as much as $6 billion dollars is a bit misleading that the deal’s done.   They lead off their story with an earlier “more reputable” post/article on Dealbook on November 30, 2010 basically providing them all their ammunition for the story & sort of reading as if the deal is basically done.   However, this article/post is from 3+ days ago & if you still type in the same phrase “google buys groupon”, you won’t see anything yet confirming the deal is done [as of the date of this post, please note].

I know the Dealbook post/article says that it “could be struck as soon as this week” so it doesn’t confirm anything per se, but I love the numbers.   The lofty valuations seem just that, “pie in the sky” numbers since it’s more than double what most of the “rumors” say the deal is worth…do a search yourself and you’ll see a number of posts saying it’s a deal estimated to be $2.5 billion instead.   Also, I thought financing was tough these days and that bankers were being “more conservative” to prevent the mess we ended up in for the past few years.   Then again, if you see this article by another “reputable” news source (Reuters), they’re saying $6 billion (twice, from my quick read of the article) for the deal.   It’s even trying to justify the huge price that may be paid for the deals site.

Well, it goes to show my timing is off again on joining a dotcom “before” it gets bought for numbers beyond most people’s dreams.   On top of this, it’s interesting how lots of people are struggling financially, but potentially $6 billion could be thrown at this site that succeeded where a site 9 years it’s senior Mercata is now resting in peace in the Super Information graveyard.