Washington – LivingSocial, the social shopping firm that
operates its Daily Deals serves in more than 120 markets, announced late
Thursday it has landed a new $175 million investment from online retail giant
Amazon (NASD: AMZN), as well as an $8 million investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The amount of the round exceeds the expectations of earlier reports, which had
projected Amazon’s investment to be $150 million.
LivingSocial, which currently
boasts more than 10 million subscribers in more than 120 locations across the
U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland and Australia, said the funding will help continue
its rapid growth.
The company is currently booking revenues of more than $1
million a day on average, and is projected to book well over $500 million in
2011.
"To be the biggest player in the local commerce space there is no
one better to work with than Amazon," said CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy.
The deal
reportedly will include an operating partnership between the two companies.
The
news comes days after reports surfaced that Google was on the verge of
acquiring Groupon at a valuation that could top $5 billion.
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