• The New York Post, Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:55 PM

Who didn't see this coming? Now that Groupon appears out of reach, Google is eying some of the social buying site's rivals, sources tell The Post. Potential prey includes LivingSocial, with a reported $1 billion valuation, along with BuyWithMe, though it's reportedly only doing $20 million in revenue. "The deal talks show that the search giant is intent on jumping into the fast-growing local coupon market through acquisitions and not through organic growth," writes The Post.

The clear leader in the space, Groupon has an 80% coupon market share and claims to have $1 billion in annual revenue. Yet, with its vast resources, Google could help any deal site scale and potentially give Groupon a run for its money. Likely anticipating some Google-sized competition, Groupon just this week hired Jason Child, a former Amazon vice-president of finance, as its chief financial officer. "Analysts," as The Post notes, "believe this signals it is ready to list its shares." Hello, IPO!

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