San Francisco — While Google was engaged with the recent launch of Google Offers, it looks like Online coupon service Groupon has grabbed the opportunity to poach away one of the search engine giant’s “Margo Georgiadis,” a top sales executive at Google, and making her their new chief operating officer, as the company began rolling out a new service aimed directly at Groupon’s thriving business.
Veteran Googler–Georgiadis, formerly Vice President of Global Sales and Planning at Google Chicago, will be departing to join daily deals site Groupon as Chief Operating Officer, according to reports appeared in Chicago Business. She will be filling the spot left vacant by former COO Rob Solomon, who left the company in March.
Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora said in a statement: “I’m grateful for all that Margo has done for our team over the past two years. We will miss her, but we are also very excited that she is joining a terrific company and a great partner for Google.”
At Google Georgiadis, 47, managed a sales group comprised of over 1600 employees and was also tasked with overseeing products such as Google AdWords and AdSense.
A statement from Groupon mentioned that Georgiadis joined Google in 2009, where she handled sales and technology teams involved in the company’s advertising units, as well as local and commerce businesses such as Google Checkout.
Prior to joining the search engine behemoth in 2009, Georgiadis spent 14 years at McKinsey and Company, as a business analyst and a partner and was a co-leader of the retail and marketing practice at the consulting firm, according to her LinkedIn profile. Besides, she was CMO at Discover Card and Principal at Synetro Capital, a Chicago-based private equity company.
“Margo is a strong leader with a passion for helping small business owners and consumers,” Andrew Mason, chief executive officer of Groupon, said in the statement. “We are thrilled to have her on our team.”
Groupon said Georgiadis will manage the company’s global sales, marketing, and operations, which currently consists around 7,000 employees and spans 46 countries. Georgiadis is conveniently already based in Chicago, where the social-buying site is located.
Solomon, 44, disclosed he was leaving the company in March, only because the company “got really big.” Groupon, a daily deals site which is reportedly valued at $25 billion and is gearing up for an initial public offering, has around 7,000 employees, up from 200 when it launched in November 2008. About half of those are sales representatives. The Chicago-based company plans to hire 125 employees a month.
Furthermore, Georgiadis’ position is pretty vital for Groupon, as the company is all geared-up for an IPO at a reported $15 billion dollar valuation in the spring and Groupon CEO Andrew Mason needs a Sheryl Sandberg to his Mark Zuckerberg. The company made $760 million in revenue last year, a number that Mason wants to increase to “billions” in 2011.
Groupon, which recently accumulated $950 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has met with bankers to talk about a possible IPO, Mason told Reuters in January.
Moreover, the hiring and roll-out come as Groupon and Google constantly go head-to-head in the vast market for local advertising, with each company pitching its online marketing services to small businesses such a restaurants and nail salons.
Google, the world’s No. 1 Internet search engine, attempted to acquire Groupon for $6 billion in December, but Groupon rebuffed the buy-out offer from Google, and now it has started poaching some of its top employees, too.
Surprisingly, Georgiadis marks the second high-level executive Groupon has poached from Google in recent months. In February, Groupon hired Google’s Jason Harinstein, a director on the search company’s M&A team, to serve as its senior vice president of corporate development.