Groupon acquires MashLogic's Britely tool

Groupon has acquired MashLogic, a company based in California that makes a simple tool called Britely to capture and collate bits of information from web pages.

The announcement, posted on Britely's blog, did not disclose terms of the deal. Britely will be shut down on Monday, and all user records and data will be deleted.

"We are thrilled to join the Groupon team to help build the operating system for local commerce," MashLogic said. Groupon did not immediately comment.

Users who installed Britely as a button on their browser toolbar could highlight a bit of information from a web page and hit the button, which then posted the scrap on a colorful tile, called a "brite."

A brite includes the URL of the clipped website the bit of information came from. MashLogic describes a brite as an easier way to share information rather than copying links to websites and sending those links to people over email.

Groupon offers online coupons for businesses. The offers are often contingent on how many people sign up for a deal, and it collects a fee from sales of the deals it advertises. Since its initial public offering in November 2011, Groupon saw rapid growth but has struggled somewhat in keeping consumers interested and merchants happy.

In a November 2012 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Groupon said it planned to expand its daily business deals and build a more extensive local commerce platform for consumers and merchants. That strategy, it said, would entail acquiring businesses and technology.

Groupon also said it faced serious challenges, citing an "inability" to adapt to varied commercial and regulatory landscapes in international markets and the high cost of compliance.

"We experienced rapid growth over a short period in a new market that we created and we do not know whether this market will continue to develop or whether it can be maintained," Groupon said in the 10-Q filing.

Groupon counted 39.5 million active users for its third quarter of 2012, up from 28.9 million active users in the same period a year prior.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk

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