LivingSocial

LivingSocial is an online marketplace that allows its registered users to buy and share things to do in their city.[5] Formerly headquartered in Washington, D.C., LivingSocial had roughly 70 million members around the world in 2013.[2] The company shrank from a peak of 4,500 employees in 2011 to about 200 in 2016.[6][7] LivingSocial was purchased by Groupon in 2016.

LivingSocial
Type of site
Electronic commerce
Available inEnglish and others (for 27 countries)
HeadquartersChicago, U.S.
OwnerGroupon
Created by
Key people
  • Gautam Thakar
  • (CEO & President before company was acquired by Groupon)[1]
Revenue$536,000,000 (2012)[2] $57,000,000 (2015)[3]
URLLivingSocial.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedJune 29, 2007 (2007-06-29)[4] (as Hungry Machine)
Current statusActive

History

LivingSocial was founded as Hungry Machine in 2007 by four employees from Revolution Health Group.[8] After acquiring BuyYourFriendADrink.com in 2009, LivingSocial launched a daily deals website.[9][10] The company offered its first deal in July 2009.[11] By July 2010, the company had launched deals in 25 cities.[11]

By 2011, LivingSocial had raised over $800 million in venture capital funds.[12] That same year, the company generated $238 million in revenue but lost $499 million.[7] In 2012, a class action lawsuit was filed against LivingSocial with respect to the expiration of deals, following a similar action against Groupon.[13] A provisional settlement was reached in November 2012.[14]

In 2012, the Government of the District of Columbia offered the company a number of tax breaks and incentives to open offices and hire workers in Washington, DC. However, a year later the company did not reach the size it needed to be for the tax breaks to kick in, as it had begun laying off workers and subleased offices it purchased earlier.[15] The company also announced it was changing its focus from daily deals to a website and mobile app.[15]

On April 26, 2013, it was announced that LivingSocial's database had been hacked, affecting 50 million registered users. While the announcement stated that credit card information not compromised, other user information including passwords was exposed.[16][17] On May 1, 2013, the Attorneys General of Connecticut and Maryland sent a joint letter to LivingSocial requesting additional information about the incident, as well as more details about the company's data management policies and procedures.[18]

By 2015, LivingSocial had 800 employees, down from a peak of 4,500 in 2011.[7][12] In 2016, it laid off half of its remaining workforce.[6] That year, The Washington Post reported that many laid off or departed workers formed new tech companies in LivingSocial's home city of Washington, DC.[19]

In October 2016, Groupon Inc. purchased LivingSocial for an undisclosed amount.[20] The Washington Post later reported this amount was $0.[21] Groupon began laying off all remaining employees and closed the LivingSocial D.C. office.[22]

Leadership changes

In March 2012, co-founder Eddie Frederick stepped down as president and from the Board of Directors.[23] A year later in March 2013, co-founder and CTO Aaron Batalion stepped down from his post.[24] In January 2014, LivingSocial's CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy announced his resignation, remaining CEO until a replacement was named.[25] In July 2014, it was announced that Gautam Thakar, then-CEO of Shopping.com at eBay, would succeed the position of CEO at LivingSocial.[26]

Acquisitions
  • In October 2010, LivingSocial announced acquisition of social adventure company Urban Escapes.[27]
  • In November 2010, LivingSocial bought $5 million controlling stake in Australian social shopping site Jump On It. In March 2012, LivingSocial purchased Jump On it for $40 million.[28]
  • In January 2011, LivingSocial acquired a majority stake in LetsBonus.[29] It sold LetsBonus in 2015.[30]
  • In March 2011, LivingSocial acquired InfoEther, a Ruby/Rails consultancy.[31]
  • In June 2011, Dubai Based GoNabit, an Arabic website for daily deals, was acquired by LivingSocial.[32]
  • In June 2011, LivingSocial acquired DealKeren, which offers daily deals in Indonesia, and its parent company Ensogo, which offer daily deals in Thailand and the Philippines.[32]
  • In August 2011, LivingSocial acquired TicketMonster for $350 million.[33] In November 2013, LivingSocial sold TicketMonster to Groupon for $260 million.[34] TicketMonster was later bought back by a consortium of investors led by KKR in 2015, for $782 million.[35]
  • In April 2012, ONOSYS, a mobile and online ordering provider, was acquired by LivingSocial.[36]

References
  1. "Groupon to lay off last 95 LivingSocial staffers, close D.C. office". Washington Business Journal.
  2. "LivingSocial Company Profile". inc.com. Inc. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  3. "LivingSocial cuts its Q4 loss but revenue down, expenses up". Washington Business Journal. Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  4. "HungryMachiene.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-07-10.
  5. "Company Overview of LivingSocial, Inc". www.businessweek.com. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on July 15, 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  6. Peterson, Andrea. "LivingSocial is laying off more than half of its workers". Washington Post. Retrieved 1 Sep 2016.
  7. Issac, Mike and Benner, Katie. New York Times, Nov. 20, 2015. "LivingSocial Offers a Cautionary Tale to Today’s Unicorns". Accessed Sept. 1, 2016.
  8. Empson, RIp. "Confirmed: LivingSocial Co-founder Eddie Frederick Steps Down From Leadership, Board". TechCrunch.com. Tech Crunch. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  9. McCarthy, Caroline. "BuyYourFriendaDrink gets bought". www.cnet.com. CNet. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  10. Yarow, Jay. "Exclusive Q&A with LivingSocial CEO". Business Insider. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  11. Overly, Steven. "RIP LivingSocial: The fast rise and slow demise of a daily deals company". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  12. Isaac, Mike; Benner, Katie (2015-11-20). "LivingSocial Offers a Cautionary Tale to Today's Unicorns". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  13. Washington Business Journal
  14. Kamenetz, Anya (26 March 2013). "LivingSocial Ordered to Pay $4.1 Million to Settle Class Action Suit". fastcompany.com. Fast Company. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  15. O'Connell, Jonathan. The Washington Post, Oct. 6, 2013. "LivingSocial has yet to reach hiring and other goals to claim D.C. tax breaks. Accessed Sept. 1, 2015.
  16. "Living Social Database Hacked; 50 Million customers impacted". redtape.nbcnews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-28. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  17. Dan Goodin (April 27, 2013). "Why LivingSocial's 50-million password breach is graver than you may think". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  18. Radke, Bruce A.; Michael J. Waters (May 16, 2013). "Letter from Attorneys General to LivingSocial Can Serve as Guide for Companies Seeking to Protect Personal Information". The National Law Review. Vedder Price. ISSN 2161-3362.
  19. Overly, Steven. "How LivingSocial is giving rise to the next wave of Washington start-ups". Washington Post. Retrieved 1 Sep 2016.
  20. FitzGerald, Drew; Beckerman, Josh (2016-10-26). "Groupon Buys Rival LivingSocial, Reports Another Loss". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  21. Overly, Steven (25 February 2017). "RIP LivingSocial: The fast rise and slow demise of a daily deals company". Retrieved 22 April 2018 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  22. "Learning the LivingSocial lesson: Let Amazon take the financial risk with HQ2, a former D.C. official says". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  23. Empson, Rip. "Confirmed: LivingSocial Co-founder Eddie Frederick Steps Down From Leadership, Board". techcrunch.com. TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  24. "LivingSocial CTO Aaron Batalion to step down". wjla.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  25. Flook, Bill. January 10, 2014, Washington Business Journal, "Exclusive: LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy to step down". Accessed March 3, 2014.
  26. Stynes, Tess (15 July 2014). "LivingSocial Names Gautam Thakar CEO". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  27. Grove, Jennifer Van (19 October 2010). "LivingSocial Acquires Adventure Company to Improve Daily Deals". Mashable. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  28. "LivingSocial jumps on Australian group-buying outfit". Sydney Morning Herald. March 2012. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
  29. "LivingSocial acquires a majority stake in Let's Bonus". www.fusiondiginet.com. 13 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  30. Lunden, Ingrid (2015-02-12). "LivingSocial Offloads Let's Bonus, Its Last Non-English Business [Updated]". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-03-14.
  31. "LivingSocial gains wealth of ruby on rails expertise with Infoether acquisition". www.techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  32. "LivingSocial Expands Daily Deals Empire; Buys Ensogo, GoNabit And DealKeren". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  33. Owen, Laura (August 2, 2011). "In Asia Push, LivingSocial Buys South Korea's TicketMonster". gigaom.com.
  34. Alex Wilhelm, "Groupon's $260M Acquisition of Ticket Monster from LivingSocial Has Closed,", TechCrunch, January 2, 2014.
  35. https://www.wsj.com/articles/groupon-to-sell-46-stake-in-ticket-monster-to-kkr-anchor-equity-1429535016M
  36. "LivingSocial Buys Online Ordering System Provider ONOSYS". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2012-04-26.
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