Groupon, one of America’s leading group buying websites, and Deutsche Telekom, German telecommunications giant, have announced a partnership that will bring group buying power to European cell phone handsets in the coming year. How did two companies with little in common team up and what’s in store for the European market? Let’s take a look.
Who is Deutsche Telekom?
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s top telecommunications companies. As of September of last year, the German-based firm had 128 million mobile customers, 35 million fixed-network lines and 17 million broadband users. With a presence in more than 50 countries and in excess of 238,000 employees worldwide, Deutsche Telekom is one of the giants in the overseas market. Deutsche Telekom also reaches into the United States, where they own T-Mobile USA, a company they’ve been trying of offload for more than a year.
The deal details
In a press release dated January 10, 2012, Deutsche Telekom and Groupon fleshed out the details of what may be a first-of-its-kind arrangement in the social network buying marketplace.
“Groupon is one of the global leaders in the online and mobile commerce business,” says Heikki Makijarvi, Senior Vice President Business Development at Deutsche Telekom. “Our partnership with Groupon allows us to strengthen our stake in this rapidly expanding and exciting new market segment, while diversifying our portfolio and accelerating our time to market for innovative products and services at the same time.”
According to the joint release, Deutsche Telekom will offer location-based deals to its customer base across Europe beginning later this year. Though financial details of the partnership were not disclosed, Deutsche Telekom did say that they have high hopes of generating revenues of 2-3 billion euros ($2.6-3.8 billion dollars) by the year 2015.
Why this is important
This is the first carrier deal for Chicago-based Groupon. Though wildly popular with consumers, Groupon stock has fallen since it launched on the NASDAQ in November. As of yesterday’s news, Groupon stock jumped 4.9% to $19.20.
Business numbers aside, the daily deal market is maturing and expanding, offering more deals to a growing number of consumers and proving once again that social buying and ecommerce are here to stay.
The first handsets to include Groupon’s built-in coupon apps will be available through Deutsche Telekom during the first half of 2012.
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