Groupon Reportedly Rejects Google's $6 Billion Offer

According to various reports, the online coupon site has opted to remain independent, spurning Google's mammoth $6 billion acquisition offer. Groupon's management team is reportedly considering an initial public offering at some point in the future.

Last week, news broke that Google had initially offered $2.5 billion for Groupon, which specializes in offering members local discounts and deals-of-the-day in major geographic areas in North America. Google later raised its Groupon offer to $6 billion, which would have made the two-year-old e-commerce startup the largest acquisition in the search giant's history, overtaking the $3.2 billion Google paid for DoubleClick in 2008.

The addition of Groupon would have strengthened the e-commerce presence of Google, which is trying to expand beyond search engine services and online advertising. Google branched out this week with the launch of its new eBooks service and eBookstore, which gives users a cloud-based system to purchase books and read them on a variety of devices.

The Chicago-based Groupon was founded in 2008 by current CEO Andrew Mason. Analysts estimate the company will earn somewhere between $500 million and $600 million in 2010, making Google's $6 billion offer a considerable premium over Groupon's estimated value.