Reports are coming in that Google and Groupon decided to end acquisition talks late Friday.
Chicago Breaking Business was the first to report that buyout talks between Google (GOOG) and Groupon had been abandoned earlier today. Citing the desire to be independent and perhaps looking at an IPO next year, Groupon’s board turned down offers of around $6 billion from Google. The purchase would have dwarfed Google’s other large purchases including the $1.65 billion it paid for YouTube and the $3.1 billion it paid for Doubleclick
Earlier this week, Groupon was making large updates to its site and infrastructure, like a buyout wasn’t in the works.
Interestingly, CNNMoney got this very telling interview with Groupon CEO Andrew Mason in October which showed his desire not to get purchased by Google:
[cnnmoney-video vid=/video/technology/2010/12/01/t_tt_groupon_exxon.cnnmoney]