Business

Goldman Sachs looking for Groupon deal: report

Groupon shares rose 1.4 percent on Monday to a nine-month high after a published report said Goldman Sachs was weighing an investment in one of the daily deal company’s units.

The six-year-old Chicago outfit, whose shares are down 30 percent this year, closed at $8.25 on Monday after The Korea Times reported Goldman may buy a 20 percent stake in Groupon’s wholly owned Ticket Monster unit.

Groupon bought the Korea-based Ticket Monster for $162.9 million in cash and stock on Jan. 2 and was seen at the time as using the company to build its business in Asia.

But Groupon told Wall Street analysts this past fall that it was exploring strategic alternatives for Ticket Monster.

Jeff Houston, managing director at Barrington Research, told the Chicago Tribune that Groupon is in 47 countries and can’t invest as much as it wants to in each of them.

Groupon is transitioning from a daily deal site to more of a broad online retailer, Tom Forte — a consumer technology analyst with Brean Capital, an investment bank and asset management firm — told the Tribune.