The May Report: 1/10/2011: Bulletin: Groupon Completes $950 Million Venture Funding Round from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and private-equity investor Silver Lake

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944.

Assistant editor: Melanie Adcock, iPHONE: 312-259-0610, melanie_adcock@msn.com

If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

– Groupon Completes $950 Million Venture Funding Round from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and private-equity investor Silver Lake
– Gian Fulgoni likes Melanie and wants Ron to give her a raise
[Editor's note: Ron May here. Gian, I agree with you. Melanie should be making 100x what I pay her. ]
– Tuesday, January 25: MIT-EF: Economic Forecast 2011
– CoupTessa, Groupon, LivingSocial See Minimal Value in Daily Deal Aggregating Services: CoupTessa and other top daily deal sites are disassociating from aggregators
– Editor’s note, by Ron May
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The Scoop section:
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Groupon Completes $950 Million Venture Funding Round from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and private-equity investor Silver Lake

Subject: Groupon Completes $950 Million Venture Funding Round
Date: 1/10/2011 5:09:43 P.M. Central Standard Time
From: tatvshow@yahoo.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
CC: melanie_adcock@msn.com

Groupon Completes $950 Million Venture Funding Round

Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) — Groupon Inc. said it completed a $950 million round of financing and plans to use the funds to expand its daily coupon website and buy back shares from existing shareholders.

A range of investors participated in the fundraising, including venture-capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and private-equity investor Silver Lake.

Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mason is raising money after turning down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google Inc. on Dec. 3. Facebook Inc., another fast-growing technology company that has resisted takeover offers, recently received an investment led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. worth $500 million.

A portion of the money raised is being used to let employees and early investors cash out of their shares, Groupon said. Private companies must keep the number of shareholders below 500 or they are subject to reporting requirements by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Groupon had been considering raising money from investors when it entered the talks with Google. Founded in 2008, the company may have generated more than $500 million in sales last year, people familiar with the matter said last month.

The Chicago-based startup is trying to maintain its lead over rivals such as LivingSocial, which received $183 million in an investment round led by Amazon.com Inc. last month. Groupon offers discounts of as much as 90 percent from businesses such as restaurants, nail salons and clothing stores. It then keeps a portion of the revenue. The promotions activate once enough people sign up for them.

Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian-based investor, led an earlier round of financing in Groupon valuing the company at $1.3 billion.

To contact the reporters on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at Dmacmillan3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

Bruce Eric Montgomery
Executive Producer & Host
Technology Access Television
200 S. Wacker Drive, 15th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606-5865
(312) 725-8601
tatvshow@yahoo.com
www.tatv.org
www.twitter.com/techaccesstv
www.facebook.com/brucemontgomery
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Gian Fulgoni likes Melanie and wants Ron to give her a raise
[Editor's note: Ron May here. Gian, I agree with you. Melanie should be making 100x what I pay her. ]

From: “Fulgoni, Gian”
Subject: RE: The May Report: 1/7/2011: Melanie may not realize what a gold mine she’s found — it’s called AngelList, the deals they’ve done plus the people they co-invest with and the referring entrepreneurs. Chicago area investors include — and Kevin Willer’s n
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 15:51:00 -0500
To: The May Report

Hey Ron:

Melanie is doing a great job for you. I really like what she does and says and how she writes. You should give her a raise!

Gian

Gian Fulgoni Chairman | comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR)
o +1 (312) 775-6481 | m +1 (312) 953-1694 | f +1 (312) 775-6495 | GFulgoni@comscore.com
comScore
Measuring the Digital World
Introducing Video Metrix 2.0
The industry’s first tool for understanding online video monetization
www.videometrix2.com
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Tuesday, January 25: MIT-EF: Economic Forecast 2011

From: “MIT Enterprise Forum of Chicago”
Sender: mailer@mail2.clubexpress.com
Subject: CORRECT TIME MIT EF Chicago Jan. 25 Event: Economic Forecast
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:24:06 -0600
To: claire@themayreport.com

MITEF

The Global Entrepreneurial Network: Connect. Inspire. Succeed.

Our Host Sponsor
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For information on
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Join Our Mailing List

Our Sponsors

Economic Forecast 2011
January 25, 5:00 – 8:00 pm

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CoupTessa, Groupon, LivingSocial See Minimal Value in Daily Deal Aggregating Services: CoupTessa and other top daily deal sites are disassociating from aggregators

From: Lorelle Kahn
Subject: Daily Deal Site CoupTessa.com x Digital Deal Aggregators Call it Quits
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:57:28 -0500
To:

CoupTessa, Groupon, LivingSocial See Minimal Value in Daily Deal Aggregating Services

CoupTessa and other top daily deal sites are disassociating from aggregators

For press inquiries and interview requests please contact:

Lorelle Kahn / Lorelle@workcreateinnovate.com / (305) 458-0940

MIAMI, FL (6 January 2011) ? In addition to Groupon and LivingSocial, Florida’s other leader in the internet daily deal business, CoupTessa.com, the bi-lingual daily indulgence site for women, announced today it has joined the strategic step in severing ties with aggregators.

Due to the findings that deal aggregators are not of any significance to the group-buying models, all three of Florida’s top deal sites have chosen to disassociate themselves.

“While daily deal aggregators like Yipit, Coupz, Dealgator, and others have evolved across the country as the daily deal business has grown, many feel that they are not viable in facilitating purchases. While we respect their right to pursue being any business model they choose, CoupTessa does not feel they add sufficient value to participate in our Affiliate Programs”, said Francisco Gonzalez, Co-Founder of CoupTessa.com.

Beginning next week, the only way to buy the top-tier deals CoupTessa offers is directly via the brand?s website (www.couptessa.com), which offers 50-90% services catered to women.

ABOUT COUPTESSA

Established by distinguished entrepreneurs David B. Horn and Francisco Gonzalez, CoupTessa is the first virtual daily indulgence service aimed at women offered in both English and Spanish. CoupTessa provides steep discounts for restaurants, theaters, spas, special events and more on a daily basis, allowing women to fully enjoy their respective cities. CoupTessa represents the ?might of many women?, harnessing the power of collective buying to create major savings. Currently, CoupTessa only services South Florida; however, both Gonzalez and Horn seek to expand the brand to internationally.
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Editor’s note, by Ron May

* Bruce Montgomery, thanks for the notice on Groupon’s funding, but couldn’t you have sent the notice two hours earlier?

* I forgot to mention that Tim Smith’s wife, Yvette (don’t hold me to that) told me that Tim has never gotten a job the usual way. He has always gotten jobs in hotels, in bars, and in hotel bars.

That’s how he hooked up for his gig at DePaul, she told me. He met someone from DePaul at a night club.

And he met Mike Roche, his publisher, at an AMA meeting in a hotel.

Meanwhile, he sent out 200 resumes to no avail. That is what he did after he lost his regular job ten years ago, she told me.

* Another thing I forgot to mention is that DePaul has one of the top marketing departments according to Tim Smith. That is because they have and stick to teaching quantitative methods and they are one of the few schools in the country that does that. “No one else has quantitative methods in marketing,” Tim said, and two of his undergrad students were standing right there to confirm it.

* Things appear to be turning around at McCormick Place. A major medical technology show is coming back. And while plastics has not been lured back yet, the rules have been loosened to the point where vendors can do their own signage and set-ups to a much greater degree than in the past.
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END OF REPORT