Thaindian News

London, Dec 1 (IANS) Internet giant Google will buy a website that offers its users discount coupons at a staggering price of $5.3 billion, a media report said Wednesday.

Andrew Mason will sell Google his Groupon website at $5.3billion (4.1 billion pounds).

Mason, 29, set up the business two years ago. He employs around 1,000 people and has 2.5 million users in Britain alone, the Daily Mail reported.

The website offers discount vouchers called “Groupons” which give large discounts on retail websites. It also provides up to 90 percent off on products ranging from glasses to car hire and cinema tickets.

Groupon sends its members daily e-mails with about 200 discounts for goods and services.

The deals, however, are activated only when a minimum number of people agree to make a purchase. The deals expire unless enough people sign up.

Groupon makes it money by taking a cut of each sale and had a turnover of $500 million (320 million pounds) this year.

Mason reportedly turned down a $2 billion offer from Yahoo in April this year because it did not meet his valuation.