Groupon has acquired MashLogic, the company behind Britely. Britely announced the news on its blog (as first spotted by PandoDaily).
It appears that Groupon (which has not announced the acquisition itself) is simply acquiring the company for talent rather than product, as the Britely team will work on a local commerce operating system for Groupon.
“We are thrilled to join the Groupon team to help build the operating system for local commerce. Like all startups, our aspiration has always been to have a major impact on the world, and with Groupon, we see a real opportunity to make a significant improvement in people’s everyday lives,” the Britely team writes. “Of course, this is a little bittersweet for us. We’ve very much enjoyed building Britely. The best part has been getting to know you, our user community. To all of you that joined us on the journey, we wanted to say thank you! Thank you for your support, feedback, creativity, and enthusiasm.”
Britely will be shutting down its service on February 18. That includes all brites and blog embeds. All data and user records will be permanently deleted after that date.
While Britely gives no instructions for transitioning data to other services, they suggest you email them with questions/concerns.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
[Pictured is Groupon’s recently launched Mechant Impcat Report]