LivingSocial to Sell All 13.8M of its Groupon Shares

Shares of Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) traded in the red on Friday after it announced that rival LivingSocial will sell all 13.8 million of the Groupon shares it owns.

The move was planned. LivingSocial acquired the shares as part of the deal to sell its Korean e-commerce company Ticket Monster to Groupon in November but said it would likely sell the shares when the deal closed and use the proceeds to improve its U.S. business.

The $260 million Ticket Monster deal closed on Thursday.

In a securities filing, Chicago-based Groupon said it would not receive proceeds from the sale, which represent roughly 2% of its outstanding stock.

The daily deals site bought Ticket Monster, which sells event tickets, as part of an effort to transition to a mobile e-commerce marketplace from its traditional “flash sale email model.”

The decision came as Groupon struggled to improve its top line, with third quarter sales missing expectations. Its shares on Friday were down about 0.84% to $11.75 in recent trade.