Groupon president steps down

Rob Solomon

Rob Solomon, president and COO of Groupon, will step down from his position at the Chicago-based coupon site after about one year at the company, said Julie Mossler, PR and consumer marketing manager at Groupon. He will remain in his position while the company searches for a replacement.

Solomon previously worked as a venture partner at Technology Crossover Ventures and as CEO of travel search engine SideStep, which he sold to Kayak for $200 million in 2007. Solomon also served in various executive roles at Yahoo, including SVP of commerce and VP and GM of the Yahoo shopping group.

Mossler declined to elaborate on Solomon leaving the company, saying, “We're not doing press on this.”

Solomon's departure from Groupon was first reported on All Things Digital, which published an e-mail from company CEO Andrew Mason on the matter. The memo referenced Solomon's desire to return to Woodside, Calif, where he lived prior to joining Groupon, and credited him with helping to grow the company's presence from one country to 44, and its subscriber base from 3 million to 70 million.

Groupon reportedly turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google late last year, but earned $1 billion in venture capital funding shortly thereafter.

The company hired Euro RSCG Chicago for CRM last December and Vertica Systems for business analytics in January.