Groupon is buying its way into new sectors — and more revenue.
The company, which pulled in $595 million in its last quarter, announced today that it has acquired Ideeli, a New York City-based fashion flash sales site.
Ideeli, which Groupon is buying for $43 million, has raised over $100 million since 2007, making the Groupon acquisition a big loss for investors like StarVest and Kodiak.
The Ideeli acquisition is just the latest entry in a string of acquisitions for Groupon, whose revenue has been more or less flat year-over-year. Recent buys include Blink (a European last-minute travel deals site) and Ticket Monster, a Korean e-commerce company formerly owned by Groupon rival LivingSocial.
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The company’s acquisition comes even as e-commerce companies like Fab are distancing themselves from flash sales, which are looking more and more like a fad.
Ideeli’s own finances don’t exactly disprove that view. The company lost $30 million on $115 million in revenue last year, according to a filing released today. That’s not the best news for Groupon’s own profit margins, but we’ll see what the company does with the buy.
