Washington – LivingSocial, the startup behind the
"Daily Deals" social shopping service, could be about to land a major
investment from Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN), according to a report in VentureBeat.
Citing a
source close to one of LivingSocial’s backers, the blog reported that Amazon is
in talks to possibly invest $100 million in the company, which already has
raised $49.2 million since March.
VentureBeat said such a deal would make sense
for Amazon, which is still a bit player in the high-margin daily offers market,
which also includes such players as GroupOn and new entrant AOL.
LivingSocial
currently has 10 million subscribers in more than 100 markets, and in the past
few weeks has acquired New York-based social adventure company Urban Escapes
and expanded into Australia with a $5 million investment in Jump On It.
The
company’s investors includce U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures,
Lightspeed Venture Partners and Steve Case’s Revolution.
Related Links:
http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/18/livingsocial-amazon-com-rumor
