Hacker News Reader

I wonder, in an alternate timeline where Groupon took the Google offer… Apart from some different fortunes for founders and early investors, would things be much different today? I can easily imagine Google selling the company off again a few years later, leaving it in a similar position to Chicago’s most infamous Google acquisition/divestiture, Motorola.

View on HN

I think Google would have just rebranded it as Google Groupon, let it die on the vine, and it would slump into the Google Graveyard.

I don't think there would be any reason to divest it, it has no manufacturing or anything that stands on its own.

Instead, Google created Google Offers. It then shuttered it a year or so later, refunding every transaction that had gone through it.

I was working for Amazon's bet (AmazonLocal -- https://local.amazon.com/) at the time. It lasted a bit longer, but was also eventually shut down.

>would things be much different today?

I doubt it. What would have been different--because Google?

For an example of another Google property that catered to local businesses, they bought Zagat--and to the disappointment of a lot of foodies--it probably fed into Google restaurant ratings for a while but, at this point, there's not much if anything left.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com