Groupon Hires Former Amazon Executive As New CFO
Groupon has named former Amazon exec as their new CFO. With this recent leadership acquisition and rumors of additional venture funding, watchers say an IPO is on its way.
Further fueling speculation that a Groupon IPO is imminent, the company announced today that it has named former Amazon VP of Finance Jason Child as the companies new CFO. A longtime employee of Amazon, Child spent years managing the companies Asian financial operations as well as holding the title of director of investor relations.
The news comes hot off the heels of last weeks eye-popping $6 billion acquisition offer from Google that was widely publicized and ultimately rejected by the Groupon, a two year old startup that is considered to be the fastest-growing company ever. Bloomberg recently reported Groupon could possibly raise additional funding before an IPO that would value the company at nearly $6 billion. With the installation of Child as CFO industry watchers now say the company going public is a sure bet, in what will likely become the most highly anticipated IPO since Google went public in 2004. Despite pundit claims of overvaluation, the radically popular e-commerce phenomenon still maintains 80% market share and feels little threat to it’s status as industry leader despite an estimated 500 copycat companies globally.
Even e-commerce pioneer Amazon has taken notice. The company recently invested $175 million into Living Social, widely considered one of the few real competitors to Groupon. In a few short years group buying has emerged as a serious offshoot off traditional e-commerce. Brick and mortar businesses are taking notice of the trend too – increasingly inking deals with Groupon and Groupon clones to meet ever-growing demand from legions of deal-hungry consumers.
