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Groupon’s earliest investor and co-founder Eric Lefkofsky has transferred 18.7 million shares of the company, Bloomberg reports.
Bloomberg confirmed the transfer, found in a regulatory filing, with a Groupon spokesperson.
Most of the shares, 15.4 million, were moved from 600 West Groupon LLC and distributed to Lefkofsky’s beneficiaries.
600 West Groupon LLC is a company that’s managed by a firm Lefkofsky and his wife own.
“What appears to be happening is this group vehicle, which is a holding company for Groupon’s stock, is being opened up and the stock is being distributed out to the folks who were investors one way or another,” Erik Gordon, a law and business professor at the University of Michigan, told Bloomberg.
“Eric is distributing the stock he personally owns in that LLC to his family’s charitable foundation,” Groupon spokesman Charles Sipkins said.
Nearly 3 million shares were moved to the Lefkofsky Family Foundation which supports initiatives like Teach for America and Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
18.7 million shares of Groupon, worth about $77.6 million today, sounds like a lot. But Lefkofsky is still Groupon’s largest single shareholder; he owns about 17% of Groupon and has 109.4 million shares.