Shares of embattled daily-deals website Groupon (GRPN) surged on Monday after the company announced that it is looking for a prospective buyer. The stock was trading up over 7% during afternoon trading on Monday. According to the recent reports, the company, which has a market cap of $2.58 billion, has held preliminary talks with more than one potential buyers so far.
Though the names of the companies involved in the bidding was not revealed, industry watchers have made some guesses. These include Alibaba (BABA), which had picked 6% stake in the company in 2016, Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) as well as IAC, whose CEO Joey Levin sits on Groupon’s board.
Groupon has been struggling ever since it went public in 2011, as it failed to impress investors in terms of revenue growth. The company became subject to heavy backlash despite flowing more funds into marketing efforts, and many blamed the company’s flawed business model. International expansion plans also failed to take off as it was forced to exit many countries due to lack of profitability.
Stiff competition from peers including Yelp (YELP), Alibaba, Amazon (AMZN), and eBay (EBAY) has been crushing once popular coupons platform.
Groupon shares are up 19.4% in the past 52 weeks, but down 16.4% since the start of this year.
Groupon Q1 results (click to enlarge)