Google to Acquire Groupon?

Google may acquire Groupon for $3 Billion. Some of us might feel uncomfortable with the price tag but venture capitalist, Bob Rice, thinks this is a fantastic idea. He told Bloomberg.

Google has been trying hard to get into the social network market but so far both Orkut and Google Buzz have not live up to Google’s expectation. Rice feels that acquiring Groupon would help Google establish itself in the social network market. Especially when Groupon has a strong business model that is growing rapidly.

What is impressive is that in the last two years, Groupon has been fast to monetize the social network. In contrast, hot property (cooling down though), Foursquare has yet to figure out its business model.

“Everybody from top down. They are engineers, geeks. They do algorithms. They don’t like to talk about what they’re going to do tomorrow night. They don’t understand the social network market.” Rice explained when asked why Google has not been able to establish itself in the social network domain.

Groupon is currently profitable in the U.S but its ambitious plan to acquire copycat sites across the world has put a strain in its financial health. Exiting in two years at the value of $3 billion is really an amazing feat. But it’s always a tough dilemma whether Groupon should take the exit if Google were to make an offer.

Has Groupon reached its peak? Or should the team continue with its adventure? Let us know your thoughts.