iZone International: Former Amazon VP Finance now Groupon CFO
Group buying biggie Groupon has brought on board former Amazon VP Jason Child as its new CFO. The company, which is valued at $1.3 billion by analysts, recently turned down an offer for $6 billion by Google, and is possibly pushing to expand in the group buying market, while industry watchers suggest that it will likely go public in 2011.
Fresh from turning down Google’s offer for acquisition earlier this month, local group buying leader Groupon has hired Jason Child as its new CFO as it starts on its expansion plans. The company was earlier rumoured to be in India looking for an acquisition as well, but so far that at least remains in the rumour state.
Child, former VP – Finance, Amazon, will be joining Groupon, which recently turned down an offer of a reported $6 billion (though the details were never actually made public) from Google. According to Bloomberg.com, Groupon is headed to top $500 million in sales this year, a milestone as they are overtaking pioneers like Amazon and eBay.
Source: Bloomberg.com
Groupon was introduced in November 2008 by founder Andrew Mason. The website offers daily group discounts on restaurants, theme parks, clothes and other consumer items.
Groupon aims to raise several hundred-million dollars, a person familiar with the matter said this month. The increased financing would value Groupon at less than $6 billion, said two people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. An investment group led by Digital Sky Technologies in April valued Groupon at about $1.3 billion.
Child held various positions during his almost 12-year tenure at Amazon, including vice president of finance in Asia, finance director for Amazon.de in Germany and director of investor relations. Before joining Amazon, he worked for Arthur Andersen LLP as a consulting manager.
