Groupon gets huge investment from firm with ties to Comcast                                Ben Miller                                                                                      Contributing WriterChicago Business Journal Chicago Business Journal Apr 4, 2016, 11:16am CDT                                
                                                                                Bloomberg photo ________________________________________
   Groupon Inc. said it's received a $250 million investment from Atairos, an East Coast independent private investment firm.
  Atairos was started earlier this year by  Michael Angelakis, the former vice chairman and CFO of  Comcast Corp., with Comcast providing $4 billion of the company's capital. Angelakis will join the board of the Chicago online deal company.
  “The potential in combining Groupon's local expertise with Comcast's vast subscriber and advertiser network is something we look forward to closely exploring together," said  Neil Smit, president and CEO of Comcast Cable,  in a statement.
                                                                                                                             Wall Street was impressed with the deal: In early Monday trading, shares in Groupon were up more than 12 percent, rising 49 cents to $4.41.
   In February, Groupon celebrated its 1-billionth deal,  and in December, Groupon's North American billings for the Black Friday selling weekend were up 41 percent compared with 2014.
  bizjournals.com |