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Individual essay - compare and contrast the entrepreneurial journey [16]
This is what I have for now:
Following the presentation of our project, we are now being asked to compare and contrast the entrepreneurial journey made by two different enterprise. The two companies that I am going to use for this individual essay are going to be Carphone Warehouse and Groupon.
1) Foundation.
Carphone Warehouse
The company was co-founded by Charles Dunstone and Julian Brownlie in 1987 when most portable phones were too bulky to carry and called car phones. To build their company, the co-founders both put six thousand pounds from their savings and asked one of their old friend to become the finance director of the enterprise.
Groupon
Groupon was created in 2008 by Andrew Mason, who is now the CEO. Eric Lefkofski then joined the group and provided the company with one million of dollars to develop the idea. In October 2010 Groupon was available in 150 cities in North America and 100 cities in Europe, Asia and South America, and had 35 million registered users.
2) Successes and difficulties
a) Successes
Carphone Warehouse
Carphone Warehouse is a very successful company.
Firstly, the company bought Opal Telecom in 2002, and in 2003 launched the TalkTalk brand.
Then, in May 2008 Best Buy agreed to buy a 50% share of The Carphone Warehouse retail business for £1.1 billion to launch the Best Buy Europe joint venture. Best Buy branded superstores opened in total 11 stores. The company closed all of its United Kingdom stores in January 2012, due to poor financial results. In April 2013, Carphone Warehouse agreed to buy out Best Buy.
In 2009, Carphone Warehouse became Britain's second largest broadband provider after BT.
In April 2008, the Carphone Warehouse decided to increase its joint venture with Best Buy by launching Best Buy Mobile as a "store inside a store" inside of Best Buy's or as a separate store located by Best Buy stores throughout the United States. In the same business venture Carphone Warehouse was split into four parts and one quarter sold to Best Buy for a sum nearing 1.1 billion.
On 19 June 2007, the Carphone Warehouse became the official sponsor of the fourth series of The X Factor.
The company were also the sponsors for the United Kingdom's version of Big Brother from 2004 to 2007. In 2006, they also sponsored Celebrity Big Brother and related Celebrity Big Brother shows on Channel 4.
And finally in April 2011, Carphone Warehouse sponsored the Appy Awards.
Groupon
Like his competitor, Groupon is a very successful and worldwide known company. It has achieved many projects.
Indeed, the company bought the Indian deal-of-the-day website SoSasta.com in January 2011 and re-branded it as "Crazeal by Groupon Inc." The Groupon acquisitions of uBuyiBuy launched services under the Groupon name in Hong Kong. In addition, Groupon acquired GroupsMore.com to expand its business in Malaysia.
Prior to these acquisitions, Groupon had bought out the mobile technology company Mob.ly.
In January 2012, the company acquired Mertado, a social shopping service based on the Facebook platform. In May 2012, Groupon acquired Breadcrumb, a point of sale system and iPad app that targets local restaurants.Based on the May acquisition, Groupon launched Breadcrumb PRO and Breadcrumb POS, expanding its target beyond restaurants to include all types of local businesses.
In September 2012, Groupon acquired restaurant reservation and discount site Savored for an undisclosed amount.
Groupon recorded record-breaking holiday weekend sales in North America during Black Friday representing the most successful four days ever in the company's six-year history, with sales up more than 25% year over year.
In October 2014, Groupon unveiled Snap, a new app specifically for giving customers cash back when they buy certain items at the grocery store.
In November 2014, Groupon acquired In-Store Analytics and Marketing Startup, Swarm Mobile, a startup that helps businesses connect with and track their customers while in stores
then i was think on doing this plan:
b) Difficulties
2) Marketing styles
3) Objectives
and then i'm a bit stucked for the rest ...