NEW YORK- Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing, today announced that funds affiliated with the firm have sold Slickdeals (or “the Company”), the largest consumer-driven deal sharing platform in the U.S., to West Street Capital Partners VII, a fund managed by the Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (“GS MBD”) and Hearst. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1999, Slickdeals is the leading and most trusted online community dedicated to sharing, rating and reviewing deals and coupons in the U.S.

Through the power of crowdsourcing, Slickdeals enables consumers to discover and discuss the best deals on products and services across thousands of the most popular retailers. Since Warburg Pincus’ investment in the Company in 2012, Slickdeals has strengthened its management and product teams, solidified the infrastructure of the business and invested in initiatives to expand its audience and grow traffic.

“I’m very proud of the passionate and dedicated team at Slickdeals, and grateful to our 10 million monthly active users and thousands of retail partners,” said Josh Meyers, chief executive officer of Slickdeals. “Warburg Pincus has provided strong partnership and support over the past six years in strengthening and expanding our business, and we look forward to leveraging GS MBD’s capabilities to further advance our growth.”

Vishnu Menon, managing director, Warburg Pincus, said, “Slickdeals has grown into the largest community-driven, deal-sharing website with millions of savvy users. We are pleased to have built a world-class technology business with a significant presence in Southern California, an area in which we remain committed to investing. We wish Josh and the Slickdeals management team continued success in the future.”

“We have been impressed by Slickdeals’ unique, community-driven platform and are excited about partnering with Josh and the Company’s team in its next phase of growth,” said Harsh Nanda, managing director of Goldman Sachs.

“We are delighted to join forces with Goldman Sachs and the team from Slickdeals to further expand and build upon its innovative approach to online shopping,” said Mark Aldam, executive vice president and COO of Hearst.