WASHINGTON, DC – Local deal site and Groupon competitor LivingSocial has grabbed a majority stake in Let’s Bonus, one of the pioneer social shopping sites in Europe. Financial details were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes on the heels of LivingSocial’s latest investment, $175 million from Amazon.
The 800-pound gorilla of the social shopping space, Groupon, recently turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google, according to reports, but just this week raised $950 million.
LivingSocial says the Let’s Bonus acquisition bolsters LivingSocial’s rapid international expansion, making it now live in ten countries with the addition of Let’s Bonus’ Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico presences. LivingSocial now has more than 16 million subscribers, is live in more than 170 markets, and is projected to book in excess of $500 million in revenue in 2011.
“The addition of Let’s Bonus to the LivingSocial team is a great opportunity to expand into Latin Americaand continue our European growth,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “Not only is LivingSocial available in ten countries, but with this acquisition we’ve gone multilingual, offering deals in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.”
Launched in September 2009 in Barcelona, Let’s Bonus helped to pioneer the collective buying movement in Europe and is the leader in the Spanish market. The company offers daily deals with discounts of up to 70 percent on fun, exclusive activities including gourmet dinners, luxury spas and romantic escapes.
We suspect we’ll be seeing a good deal more acquisitions and partnerships in the hot, hot, hot social shopping space. The top players are well heeled with new cash and many smaller companies have niche pieces of the market.
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- DC-based LivingSocial buys Urban Escapes
- LivingSocial gained 80 percent boost from Amazon deal, but some had problems
- DC-based LivingSocial looks for innovation edge in InfoEther acquisition
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Tags: acquisition, daily deals, DC, Groupon, Let's Bonus, LIvingSocial, social shopping
