7 ms·

Local Q&A Site Hipster In Acquisition Talks With Groupon

31 points by ssclafani 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
olivercameron 16y ago
Is anyone else as speechless as me?
- mikecarlucci 16y ago
  It's the continuation of a strange cycle. Path is a social network the encourages you to have only a few friends, why not acquire a company that hasn't launched for the users?
blhack 16y ago
There are several things that seem absolutely insane about this to me. #1 Groupon is valued at $15 Billion? Have people lost their minds? #2 They're offering to buy hipster, a company that I've never used, and have only barely heard of. Hipster.com appears to be an ISP in Nevada, and googling hipster turns up things related to hipster culture. Am I missing something?
- olivercameron 16y ago
  http://usehipster.com http://usehipster.com
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- benologist 16y ago
  The news gets funnier - Hipster hasn't even launched yet. And they're just another Q&A site. Tomorrow's news: Quora rejected $11 trillion offer from Groupon!
  - blhack 16y ago
    >Hipster hasn't even launched yet. This is the scariest part to me. I was kindof under the impression that, at least right now, you're not really buying tech, you're buying users. "Hipster" has none.
    - rwhitman 16y ago
      Buying users used to be a reason to acquire a product, but not anymore. Users are cheap. And Groupon already has one of the best email distribution channels out there Its about the product and the team. Hipster is Quora meets Yelp, and the tech was in fact live for a while, just only in Boulder, CO. If Groupon wants to build a team & product to attack social local recommendations, its actually a smart move
  - Charuru 16y ago
    This is incorrect lol. Hipster has launched in some locales, just not everywhere.
gatsby 16y ago
April 2010: Groupon valued in the $1.35b range: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/18/its-official-groupon-announces-that-1-35-billion-valuation-round/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/18/its-official-groupon-announ... January 2011: Groupon values itself in the $15b range with an IPO: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/groupon-readies-for-an-i-p-o/ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/groupon-readies-for-a... Hmmmmm....
- olivercameron 16y ago
  Welcome to Silicon Valley.
  - allantyoung 16y ago
    Except that Groupon is from Chicago.
bretthopper 16y ago
It would be interesting to see a timeline of events where people started believing we're in a bubble. You could mark me down today with this news.
- veb 16y ago
  ... sounds like a good time to be doing a startup.
  - jarek 16y ago
    Timing your exit turns into a crucial skill.
- Charuru 16y ago
  The number is not big, less than 10 million dollars. You have no idea many employees they have or what kind of talent they have. This number is well in line with Google's talent acquisitions in prior years. Also the space they're in is very very relevant.
  - nlh 16y ago
    Every bubble always has a "rational explanation" for the valuations. "This time it's different" they say. Always. This time is no different. Of course you can explain why paying $10M for an unlaunched site makes sense to a company that just turned down $6 billion from Google, who itself is valued at $200B. Doesn't make it any less of a bubble.
  - rwhitman 16y ago
    Techcrunch also tends to greatly exaggerate acquisition prices when they don't have access to any real figures...
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
citricsquid 16y ago
okay okay okay, I'm leaning towards Techcrunch being trolled here, well I seriously hope that's the case, otherwise does anyone have a good idea that includes social, saving money and local divisions? If so, I've got some mediocre CSS skills and $10 to buy a domain with... the ONLY way this can be true is if they've built an incredible backend that groupon want to use to expand and aren't interested in doing it themselves.
- j_baker 16y ago
  Yeah. But do you have an HD picture of the Golden Gate Bridge?
Dramatize 16y ago
Are you sure it's not Hipster buying Groupon?
chr15 16y ago
At first I was skeptical of the bubble, but this is outrageous.
- banders 16y ago
  I feel the exact same way. The Path offer, then this... I never thought I'd say this but we, folks, are in a bubble.
derwiki 16y ago
From what I hear, Groupon doesn't do a lot of their engineering in house. Buying a company that can make their site into more of a 'local destination' like Yelp/Hotpot/CitySearch makes a lot of sense. And they can probably get them for a much cheaper price pre-launch.
taylorbuley 16y ago
Amazing this was 22 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093662 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093662
jaredmck 16y ago
This fits into my "hipster is a gimmick run by groupon" theory...would love to see them (or anyone, really) pull off an epic trolling of tech crunch

31 points by ssclafani 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

olivercameron 16y ago

Is anyone else as speechless as me?

mikecarlucci 16y ago
It's the continuation of a strange cycle. Path is a social network the encourages you to have only a few friends, why not acquire a company that hasn't launched for the users?

blhack 16y ago

There are several things that seem absolutely insane about this to me. #1 Groupon is valued at $15 Billion? Have people lost their minds? #2 They're offering to buy hipster, a company that I've never used, and have only barely heard of. Hipster.com appears to be an ISP in Nevada, and googling hipster turns up things related to hipster culture. Am I missing something?

olivercameron 16y ago
http://usehipster.com http://usehipster.com
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
benologist 16y ago
The news gets funnier - Hipster hasn't even launched yet. And they're just another Q&A site. Tomorrow's news: Quora rejected $11 trillion offer from Groupon!
- blhack 16y ago
  >Hipster hasn't even launched yet. This is the scariest part to me. I was kindof under the impression that, at least right now, you're not really buying tech, you're buying users. "Hipster" has none.
  - rwhitman 16y ago
    Buying users used to be a reason to acquire a product, but not anymore. Users are cheap. And Groupon already has one of the best email distribution channels out there Its about the product and the team. Hipster is Quora meets Yelp, and the tech was in fact live for a while, just only in Boulder, CO. If Groupon wants to build a team & product to attack social local recommendations, its actually a smart move
- Charuru 16y ago
  This is incorrect lol. Hipster has launched in some locales, just not everywhere.

gatsby 16y ago

April 2010: Groupon valued in the $1.35b range: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/18/its-official-groupon-announces-that-1-35-billion-valuation-round/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/18/its-official-groupon-announ... January 2011: Groupon values itself in the $15b range with an IPO: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/groupon-readies-for-an-i-p-o/ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/groupon-readies-for-a... Hmmmmm....

olivercameron 16y ago
Welcome to Silicon Valley.
- allantyoung 16y ago
  Except that Groupon is from Chicago.

bretthopper 16y ago

It would be interesting to see a timeline of events where people started believing we're in a bubble. You could mark me down today with this news.

veb 16y ago
... sounds like a good time to be doing a startup.
- jarek 16y ago
  Timing your exit turns into a crucial skill.
Charuru 16y ago
The number is not big, less than 10 million dollars. You have no idea many employees they have or what kind of talent they have. This number is well in line with Google's talent acquisitions in prior years. Also the space they're in is very very relevant.
- nlh 16y ago
  Every bubble always has a "rational explanation" for the valuations. "This time it's different" they say. Always. This time is no different. Of course you can explain why paying $10M for an unlaunched site makes sense to a company that just turned down $6 billion from Google, who itself is valued at $200B. Doesn't make it any less of a bubble.
- rwhitman 16y ago
  Techcrunch also tends to greatly exaggerate acquisition prices when they don't have access to any real figures...

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

citricsquid 16y ago

okay okay okay, I'm leaning towards Techcrunch being trolled here, well I seriously hope that's the case, otherwise does anyone have a good idea that includes social, saving money and local divisions? If so, I've got some mediocre CSS skills and $10 to buy a domain with... the ONLY way this can be true is if they've built an incredible backend that groupon want to use to expand and aren't interested in doing it themselves.

j_baker 16y ago
Yeah. But do you have an HD picture of the Golden Gate Bridge?

Dramatize 16y ago

Are you sure it's not Hipster buying Groupon?

chr15 16y ago

At first I was skeptical of the bubble, but this is outrageous.

banders 16y ago
I feel the exact same way. The Path offer, then this... I never thought I'd say this but we, folks, are in a bubble.

derwiki 16y ago

From what I hear, Groupon doesn't do a lot of their engineering in house. Buying a company that can make their site into more of a 'local destination' like Yelp/Hotpot/CitySearch makes a lot of sense. And they can probably get them for a much cheaper price pre-launch.

taylorbuley 16y ago

Amazing this was 22 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093662 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093662

jaredmck 16y ago

This fits into my "hipster is a gimmick run by groupon" theory...would love to see them (or anyone, really) pull off an epic trolling of tech crunch