Groupon has over 500 highly trained inside sales reps working out of their Chicago headquarters. These reps have established relationships with probably 100,00

Groupon has over 500 highly trained inside sales reps working out of their Chicago headquarters. These reps have established relationships with probably 100,000 [1] local businesses who are willing to spend money on online advertising. Google's existing advertising products are all self-serve. (Large accounts get assigned a rep, but only ex post facto.) This acquisition makes a ton of sense: Google gains a kick-ass AdWords sales team. With every Groupon sold, they would have the opportunity to ask the merchant "Can I tell you about our AdWords program?" [1] My estimate: 730 days of deals, 3 deals per day, 50 cities = 109,500 deals. Granted, not all cities have side deals, and not all cities have been live for all 730 days, but they're closing in on 100,000 merchants fast.