Image by jdlasica via FlickrHotmail was hot. So Bill Gates wanted to buy it. The joke in the industry for a decade and a half had been that Microsoft was always one step behind.
Sabeer Bhatia was summoned for some face time with Bill G. Bill Gates offered $200 million.
"Can I sleep on it?" Sabeer Bhatia replied. He flew back home to the Bay Area where he lived.
Image by earcos via FlickrI am going to post a hypothesis. The hypothesis is that GroupOn always wanted to get bought, and it wanted to get bought by Google. From. Day. One. GroupOn plotted for this day to come before its inception.