Honey ($PRIVATE:JOINHONEY) has a slogan: "If there's a better price, we'll find it."
After weighing the options, it looks as if Paypal ($PYPL) offered one that no one could beat.
The Los Angeles-based online discount enhancer was sold Wednesday, November 20 in a deal worth $4 billion, a handsome sum for a startup that has only raised a little over $30 million, according to Crunchbase. Over time, however, it maintained trajectory to its jumbo-unicorn status - from mid-April to mid-November, Honey's LinkedIn ($MSFT) Employee Count steadily rose more than 50%.
Honey grew job postings, too - nearly doubling them, from spring until summer this year - but then stepped back grom growth, although its headcount was steadily rising. This could be attributed to one, or two, factors. First, as its LinkedIn Employee Headcount rose, it simply needed to post fewer jobs. Or, on the other hand, and as is so common in M&A deals these days, Honey started slowing its growth as it weighed potential suitors' offers - before finally selling for a mountain of cash.
For a company with 17 million users, our final chart shows a surprising trend - although, with no brick-and-mortar operations, Honey's ability to generate social interactions on Facebook ($FB), via its Talking About Count, are somewhat limited. Still, it does track a decline, from this time two years ago.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
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