Groupon wanted $1B in breakup fees from Google

[arman0]

http://blogs.forbes.com/christophersteiner/2010/12/08/why-groupon-dumped-google-is-the-government-to-blame/

[wccrawford]

That fee seems a little excessive. I can see wanted an amount high enough to offset any disruption cause by the merge and then breakup, but that number is quite a bit higher than the disruption that would be caused, I'd think.

[mortenjorck → wccrawford]

I agree. But I think that fee included putting a dollar value on cultural disruption as well.

[brown9-2]

"The tradeoff for assenting to a period of future ambiguity, of course, is the promise of a large breakup fee if the deal were not to go through. "

Really? I would have thought the tradeoff was promise of the large purchase price.

[cd34]

The rumors circulating around the deal surely did more for their valuation than their business model. They should be paying Google.

[thibaut_barrere → cd34]

Not sure - maybe they went disclosing more strategic items than they would have hoped... I'm really wondering.