Is Groupon Exiting The POS Business?

Groupon may be looking to sell of its point-of-sale software business that’s used for restaurants and bar iPad POS systems, Re/code reported yesterday (April 8), though no specific sources were named.

While Groupon has not officially confirmed the deal, Re/code said the news came from “multiple sources,” who indicated that Groupon is reviewing a plan to ditch a portion, or all of the Breadcrumb business unit. Sources also reported that the option has been discussed privately within the company, and also with a possible competitor to buy the unit.

Breadcrumb was bought by Groupon in 2012 as a way for the company to assist their merchants by providing them with POS systems that would easily accept Groupon vouchers — eliminating the friction between merchants who choose to contract deals with Groupon. Breadcrumb founder Seth Harris is currently the VP for the Point of Sale and Payments Product at Groupon, where he has been since his company was acquired.

According to Re/code, sources also indicated that Harris has spoken about raising money to spin off the business unit into its own business, if it can get the funding support. As a separate conversation, rumors indicate that Square was once involved in the conversations around this deal, but that source indicated that deal never matriculated.

Recently, in other Groupon-related news, Groupon is in talks to spin off Korea’s second-largest eCommerce company Ticket Monster for a possible value of $1 billion. Assuming the $1 billion valuation of Ticket Monster to be true, it would represent 20 percent of Groupon’s existing valuation of $5 billion, which is a result of its 30-percent decline in share price over the past year. While the specific terms of the spin-off deal are still in flux, it may include a partnership that allows founder and CEO of Ticket Monster, Daniel Shin, to run the company with private-equity backing.