17 months after selling to Google, founders of DailyDeal buy the online coupon company back

105698525 520x245 17 months after selling to Google, founders of DailyDeal buy the online coupon company back

Fabian and Ferry Heilemann have bought back coupon platform DailyDeal from Google less than 18 months after selling it for a reported $114 million.

The brothers founded the Groupon clone in Berlin in 2009, and wrote on their website today that they “will now continue on their own”, also promising to expand the business in the coming months.

DailyDeal operates in Germany, Switzerland and Austria and was intended to help Google Offers expand internationally after the Internet giant saw a reported €6 billion bid for Groupon turned down at a time when the daily deal space was seen as one of the hottest in the digital world.

Since then, however, doubts have started to emerge about the long-term sustainability of the space. Now it seems the Heilemann brothers want to take DailyDeal down a different path. The statement reads in full:

“We are pleased to inform you today that we as founders and managing directors have bought the company DailyDeal back from Google and will now continue to lead it on our own. DailyDeal will of course continue to offer the same service and exciting offers – exactly as we have done in the past.

In addition, we will expand the business in the coming months. In the name of the DailyDeal team we thank all of our users, business partners and colleagues for their loyalty and support over the last three years. We are very much looking forward to what lies ahead of us!”

According to Deutsche Startups, Google reportedly tried to wind DailyDeal up a few weeks ago which would have seen all the employees lose their job, before the brothers stepped in to save their creation.

But the blog argues that Google’s withdrawal – and its failure to make the deal a success – will be a bitter blow to the startup scene in Berlin and across Germany.

This article originally appeared on Silicon Allee.