CrowdSavings snaps up Midwest daily deal network Deal Garden

Omaha-based daily deal network Deal Garden has been acquired by CrowdSavings, a Tampa, Fla. company that operates more than 60 local daily deal sites. With the purchase, CrowdSavings adds six Midwestern cities, including Sioux City, Iowa and Lawrence, Kan., along with a regionally-focused vacation deals site. “We are extremely pleased with the success …

Deal Garden’s website and deal emails will be co-branded for the next 30 days before fully branding itself as CrowdSavings.com.

Omaha-based daily deal network Deal Garden has been acquired by CrowdSavings, a Tampa, Fla. company that operates more than 60 local daily deal sites. With the purchase, CrowdSavings adds six Midwestern cities, including Sioux City, Iowa and Lawrence, Kan., along with a regionally-focused vacation deals site.

“We are extremely pleased with the success Deal Garden’s management and sales team has been able to achieve in the Midwest,” CrowdSavings founder and CEO Chad Jaquays said in a press release. “Their ability to work with high quality merchants and offer exceptional local deals has resulted in a loyal following of consumers.”

Pat Lazure, who co-founded Deal Garden in 2010, said though his company’s subscriber and merchant count were small compared to other daily deal sites, its level of engagement was high. “For example, 70 percent of our members were actually buyers – they bought one or more vouchers from us. As a point of reference, the industry average is about 20 percent. We know that from Groupon,” Lazure (left) said in a phone interview today.

Over the next 30 days, Lazure will lead Deal Garden’s integration with the CrowdSavings platform, which includes co-branding of dealgarden.com and deal emails. Eventually, it will be branded as CrowdSavings. Lazure and the company’s four employees – salespeople Cody Butler (co-founder), Mitch Treu (co-founder) and Chris Baker, and full-time intern, Josh Jamieson – now work for CrowdSavings.*

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Deal Garden has been self-funded since its December 2010 launch.

The acquisition is CrowdSavings’ fourth in 45 days and 14th since it emerged in late 2009. Less than one year ago, the company purchased Kansas City daily deal site Lucky Monkey. In today’s release, CrowdSavings called itself the leading consolidator of daily deal sites, now serving more than 30 U.S. markets.

Lazure, who sold his first startup in 2009 and launched the Omaha World-Herald’s daily deal site, said Deal Garden was a great learning experience for him and that he’s ready to look for the next opportunity.

“Once I complete the integration, then it’s going to be time for me to focus on what’s next,” said Lazure, who does not plan to stay with CrowdSavings beyond the transition period. “(I) certainly have several different business ideas that are tied in with local commerce, mobile coupons and the mobile wallet, mobile payments. I’m very intrigued by that. So I’m kind of eyes wide open beyond this, with no definitive plans.”

 

*Update Tuesday, 1:45 p.m. – Added Chris Baker to employee list.

Credits: Screenshot from dealgarden.com. Photo courtesy of Pat Lazure.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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