Details of the deal have not been disclosed but it is expected that the majority of Grouplys employees will move to Oodle. The Grouply platform and the groups hosted there will continue to function as before.
Grouply was founded in 2006 and has previously been funded by San O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Palo Alto-based SoftTech VC and angel investors including Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn Corp.
Oodle, a pioneer in social commerce, is seeking to reinvent the online experience for "classifieds" by building a social marketplace.
"Affinity groups such as mothers clubs, neighborhood groups, and alumni organizations can be hot spots for trading activity," says Craig Donato, CEO and founder of Oodle. With over 500,000 active groups, Grouply is a leading platform for interest-based social networks and is a natural partner for Oodle.
Donato goes on to say that, "Oodle remains focused on building a "social marketplace" - where who you're buying from (or selling or giving to) matters as much as what you're buying. This encompasses both issues of trust (I don't want to invite an anonymous person over to my house to test drive my car) as well as social reward (I'd rather give tickets I can't use to a friend then to sell them to the highest bidder). I suppose you could think of this as a new generation of "social classifieds" (although we see it as something different)."
