Rumor has it that Living social, the international brand and social buying company headquartered in Washington, D.C. has finalized a deal with Gonabit, the oldest group buying website in the Middle East backed by Bayt.com.
The deal is still unconfirmed, but if what I heard is true than Gonabit looks to be selling somewhere between 40 – 60% stake in the company for a price tag in the region of USD$15 – 20 Million. Not bad for a company that’s a couple of years old!
Looks like Livingsocial believes in this region and is looking to up the pressure on main competitors Cobone (backed by Jabbar Group) and Groupon.
I have tried to contact Gonabit for a comment, but I haven’t received any feedback yet. So I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this deal goes through or not…
Do you think this would be a good move for Living social and Gonabit? Let us know your thoughts…
Hi jennad, well its still early to tell how this will turn out. But I guess it could be good if these deals websites become bigger and hopefully be able to get better deals for you as a consumer simply by leveraging their weight and number of registered users.
I wonder what these latest acquisitions and take overs mean for the UAE market. I regularly shop at moosavings.com but if it was snatched up by a bigger fish in the market, would less competition leave me better off or worse off?
It's great news for the region if it was confirmed but the price tag of 20 million dollars means it was over-rated because Living Social can replicate their site to the region and have 6 employees in 6 different cities who can do the job at fraction of the cost.
The group-buying market has the capacity to have more suppliers of such service and none of the existing one is performing up to the standards of having the diversification of offers or interesting enough to trigger sales for those who usually don't buy online.
Which brand name deserves to be sold for 20 million with relatively few hundreds of customers and low brand equity and recognition? If we're talking about the potential in the future, then Living Social can do it alone and exceed GoNabit and Cobone in few months time.
S.Kentar