The value is less in the database and more in the relationships they've developed. We're not just talking rows in a table here. These are businesses which have bought into Groupon as a lead generator & who Groupon should be able to bring on board quickly to whatever future products develop.
And with all these businesses they've been consistently losing money. Personal relationship management is not something that gets cheaper with scale, so size of potential market doesn't really help as far as I can see.
I haven't seen any particular mention of amount of businesses retained as repeat customers, either.
The market is getting saturated with Groupon copycats. Plus, high quality merchants can't repeat Groupon offers all of the time or they risk cheapening the brand.
I have a neighbor who owns a "Moe's" franchise -- many of his customers refuse to do business without a discount.
