Groupon Hires Google Executive Georgiadis as Operating Chief
April 21, 2011, 7:34 PM EDTBy Douglas MacMillan and Brian Womack
(Updates with comment from CEO in third paragraph.)
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Groupon Inc., the largest provider of daily coupon deals online, named Margo Georgiadis as chief operating officer, hiring her away from Google Inc.
Georgiadis, who joined Google in 2009, was the company’s vice president of global sales operations, Groupon said today in a statement. She managed sales and technology teams involved in the company’s advertising units, as well as local and commerce businesses such as Google Checkout.
“Margo is a strong leader with a passion for helping small business owners and consumers,” Andrew Mason, chief executive officer of Groupon, said in the statement. “We’re thrilled to have her on our team.”
Groupon is bolstering its management ranks as it expands into hundreds of new cities and adds customers. The startup also is preparing for an initial public offering, a person familiar with the matter said this month. The IPO, which would value Groupon at $15 billion to $25 billion, is likely to happen before October, the person said.
Georgiadis replaces Rob Solomon, who announced plans to step down from the position in March. The company brought in Solomon as president and chief operating officer in March of last year, adding an Internet veteran with experience as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and manager at Yahoo! Inc.
Solomon said last month he was better at managing companies “at the startup and growth stage” than when they become large. He said he would be advising Groupon in the coming months as it seeks to replenish executive ranks with “a nuts-and-bolts operator to make the trains run on time.”
Her earlier experience included a stint as chief marketing officer at Discover Financial Services.
“I’m grateful for all that Margo has done for our team over the past two years,” Nikesh Arora, Google’s head of global sales, said in an e-mailed statement.
--Editors: Jillian Ward, Nick Turner
To contact the reporters on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at dmacmillan3@bloomberg.net. Brian Womack in San Francisco at Bwomack1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
