Alibaba Group acquired 5.6% of Groupon shares amid unexpected financial results of the service

Chinese holding Alibaba Group bought 33 million shares of the world's largest collective discount service Groupon . Following the transaction, Alibaba became the fourth largest shareholder of the service. The holding's share in the total capital of Groupon is now 5.6%, Bloomberg writes .



Groupon went public four years ago. Since then, its shares have lost in the price of 86%. However, on February 12, the company's quotes jumped, and the shares went up by 29% (to $ 2.89) - Groupon finally achieved quarterly revenues and profits, well above experts' forecasts. At about the same time, it became known about the deal with Alibaba.

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It is also known that the Chinese holding recently bought out shares in Jet.com online retailer, LYFT car ordering service and Magic Leap augmented reality startup.



On February 11, Groupon posted financial results for the fourth quarter.



The loss in the fourth quarter was $ 46.5 million, compared with a profit of $ 8.8 million recorded a year earlier. At the same time, adjusted earnings were 4 cents per share.



Adjusted revenue for the period increased by 3.8% to $ 917.2 million. Experts predicted $ 845.9 million. The same indicator for the entire 2015 amounted to $ 3.1 billion.



In November, Richon Williams took over as Groupon CEO. He decided to increase the company's marketing budget to $ 200 million. These costs have not yet paid off completely, but have already begun to bring results, according to Williams.



In 2016, Groupon will focus on international expansion.