The Dealmap Acquired by Google

Google has today acquired Dealmap, a start-up whose main function is to aggregate discounts from hundreds of group-buying sites. This acquisition may well prove to add on to Google's recently launched service in Google Offers or may stay a completely separate entity tied in to Google through simple check-ins. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, but it is known that Dealmap will join Google's local incentives and commerce group. Time to take on Groupon after all?

Back in early 2011, Google aimed to acquire Groupon for $5.3 billion. Such a deal did not end up going through, and as their Groupon competitor Google Offers wasn't meant to take on Groupon after all, supposedly, this new move may well prove to be a sweeping motion to name such a plan active after all. In a statement made to the press, Google notes the following:

"We are impressed with what the Dealmap team has accomplished and excited to welcome them to Google. We've been thrilled with the early success of our commerce offerings, and we think they can help us build even better products and services for consumers and merchants." – Google

The group known as Dealmap is based in Menlo Park, California, and collects data from around 450 sources, organizing deals by location. The startup has a mere 15 employees with two MILLION users, making this business look rather impressive by any standards. Founders Jenniver Dulski, the company's chief executive, and Chandu Thota, the company's chief technology officer have high hopes for the group now that Google has taken the reigns:

"We realized that our strategy really aligned with Google's. The scale of Google was really attractive to us." – Jennifer Dulski

Dulski notes that they look forward to dipping in to Google's talent pool and its resources in order to affect the way people shop locally on a large scale. Dealmap is available on their homepage and through mobile applications on both the Android Marketplace as well as Apple's iOS App Store.

[via Dealbook]