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Groupon has just acquired Breadcrumb, a small startup that builds point-of-sale systems for iOS devices, the company announced on its blog today. Groupon says Breadcrumb will continue to service existing customers, but the company's team, including founder and CEO Seth Harris, will join Groupon. That provides an easy way for Groupon to introduce Breadcrumb's technology, which it currently offers via subscriptions that begin at $99 a month, to its large, existing network of merchants. For its part, Groupon promises it will be able to significantly improve the deals-redeeming process for its Breadcrumb users.
The Breadcrumb acquisition fits neatly into Groupon's manuever to become "the operating system for local commerce," according to CEO Andrew Mason's most recent stockholders' letter, in which he also says he wants Groupon to serve not only as the deals purveyor, but also as the "entry point for local transactions." Groupon has recently acquired a host of startups to bolster its merchant-side products and services, including comparative shopping site FeeFighters and mobile payment app-maker Kima Labs. FeeFighters designed some of the software behind Groupon's new credit card reader, currently being tested by San Francisco merchants.
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