Groupon Moves Into Restaurant Reservations With Savored Deal

Over recent months, Groupon has sought to expand its core business of daily deals with a number of new business propositions, including with ventures like a mobile payment system.

Now, it appears that the online coupon purveyor is moving into restaurant reservations - and a little into OpenTable‘s domain.

Groupon said on Monday that it had bought Savored, an Internet start-up that offers customers ways to reserve tables at restaurants in 10 cities across the country. Terms weren't disclosed.

Unlike its more established competitor, OpenTable, however, Savored offers discounts for its customers. The business model is a bit like Hotwire.com's, in that Savored scans for openings at its partner restaurants and offers discounts - up to 40 percent, according to Groupon, though the company's own site describes the savings as “uncapped” - to customers.

The proposition is that both sides win: restaurants get patrons they otherwise wouldn't, and custome rs get both dining reservations and a discount.

Savored is meant to supplement the existing Groupon Now service, which is aimed at giving customers a list of discounts should they decide to indulge in impromptu shopping. The bigger goal is in turning Groupon into more than just a sender of daily deal e-mails: it's to transform the company into a broad platform for merchants, allowing them to provide discounts, book restaurant reservations and travel packages and track customer spending.

“Savored's platform nicely complements Groupon's efforts in yield management, an area we've pioneered with Groupon Now,” Dan Roarty, the vice president of Groupon Now, said in a statement. “We look forward to working together to achieve a common goal â€" making dining out even more fun and affordable for consumers while helping restaurateurs manage inventory and grow their businesses.”

So far, however, investors haven't really taken the pitch to heart. Shares of Grou pon were down 2.3 percent in late afternoon trading on Monday, at $5.15, and have plummeted more than 80 percent since the company began trading last fall.