How is that consolidation ? It's just a struggle for one more push before the IPO, one more spike for their company to be valued as high as possible. It's a smoke curtain.
Don't get me wrong, if I were Groupon I would do the same thing, but please, don't call it "consolidation"
Felix Salmon's recent write up:<p><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/10/21/the-groupon-roadshow/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/10/21/the-groupon...</a><p><i>Overall, then, I think it’s pretty clear that people who think Groupon’s some kind of Ponzi scheme are wrong. There’s a real business here, with a real business model. The big question is whether Groupon can execute...<p>If I had to make a forecast, I’d say that Groupon is going to be around for the foreseeable future, but that the error bars ... are enormous. It could just slow down ... [or] become that thing everybody wants to be these days, a platform.</i>
<speculation><p>Netflix is strangled by content providers, forced to pivot or bow out. Groupon flounders, is first of the big start ups to drop out. Gowalla and Posterous fight to see which of the little guys goes first, will try to be acquired, ultimately die. VC funding drops significantly, the mini bubble bursts, wall street panics.<p></speculation>
I suspect Groupon is fraud. They are a one time ripoff, and after that have no recurring customers. The faster they crash, the faster Silicon Valley can focus on value creating lasting startups.