Groupon opens Palo Alto office, acquires Ludic

Chicago-based Groupon Wednesday announced the expansion of its Silicon Valley presence with the opening of a new Groupon Palo Alto office and the acquisition of San Mateo-based Ludic Labs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Groupon's new 12,000-square-foot Silicon Valley office is in downtown Palo Alto. Previously serving Groupon's Data and Mobile needs, this office will expand its scope of work to collaborate with the Chicago development team on all product technology. The Palo Alto staff is slated to grow from 25 people to more than 100 within the next year.

Groupon will also continue to expand its existing product team at Chicago headquarters, giving the company two regions from which to attract top recruits.

“Unfortunately we cannot comment on speculation or rumors about our business,” Andrew Mason, founder and chief executive officer of Groupon, said in a statement.

The acquisition of Ludic Labs further builds the strong development and leadership talent at Groupon. Ludic Labs is best known for development of local marketing services including Offer Foundry, a self-service advertising and deals platform for local businesses; and Diddit, an online community connecting millions of users with targeted local attractions and interests. Over the last decade, the team behind Ludic Labs has built some of the world's largest Internet search and networking services.

The Ludic Labs team includes Paul Gauthier, who was co-founder of Inktomi in the Internet search market, and David Gourley who was chief technology officer at Endeca in the commerce and business intelligence area. As a part of the acquisition, Dr. Brian Totty, chief executive officer of Ludic Labs, will take on the role of head of engineering for Groupon, overseeing international product development and innovation. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.