Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

First Half of Groupon Funding Done–DST, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Capital Group and Morgan Stanley

Groupon has officially completed the raising of half of a $950 million funding, getting $500 million from a range of top-drawer investors, said sources close to the situation.

Those investors include Russia’s DST Global, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Capital Group and Morgan Stanley.

It’s unclear how much each investor has put in and who will make up the next tranche of funding, which will also close imminently.

The New York Times previously reported on the regulatory filing related to the funding, as well as investments from T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley.

Now completed, the investments value the Chicago-based social buying service at $4.75 billion, which is less than the $6 billion Google offered to buy Groupon.

Those acquisition talks failed. But Groupon is still attracting interest from other possible buyers.

For now, though, it’s just talking a pile of money–probably the right strategy–to keep growing its explosive business. A big chunk will also go to some Groupon execs and early investors.

Groupon has competitors, of course, such as LivingSocial, but has established itself as the leader in the local online discounting space.

Allen & Co. is advising Groupon on the fundraising.

A Groupon spokeswoman declined to comment.

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik