Re-reading a recent NYT interview about Groupon's founder walking away from Google's $6B offer, I was struck by how much this situation reminds me of the Yahoo!/Microsoft melodrama we witnessed in early 2008. Andrew Mason, like Jerry Yang, walked away from the negotiating table and is being coy about it.
Before saying "no" to Google, Andrew, I hope you took a good hard look at how well Yahoo's go-it-alone decision has worked out, both for its shareholders ($16.72/share on Dec .23, 2010 vs. the $33/share offered by Microsoft in 2008) and for its employees. I'm sure you see yourself as more akin to Mark Zuckerberg than Jerry Yang; for your investors' and employees' sakes, I sincerely hope you're right.
Even so, I'm betting that Amazon's recent $183M investment in #2 LivingSocial is going to make your life much more interesting in 2011. After all, Tony Hsieh and Jeff Bezos know a thing or two about creating loyal customers in markets that have no barriers to entry.
Let the games begin!
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