Following the rejection of what could be Google’s biggest acquisition in history, Groupon has raised up to $500 million of the $950 million target funding round by selling an equity stake. Of the total, $345 million will be used to buy back shares of its investors.

Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch laid out the details on the proceeds of the round of funding and dropped some names of the recipient of the bulk of funds: “It also notes that a “portion of the gross proceeds will be used to pay for shares repurchased by the Issuer in a tender offer for shares held by, among others, certain of the persons named” in the filing. What that means is that Groupon itself will use some of the money it is raising to buy back shares from the founders or other shareholders. The persons named are founders Andrew Mason, Eric Lefkofsky, and Brad Keywell, as well as the other board members (John Walter, Jason Fried, Ted Leonsis, Peter Barris, Harry Weller, and Kevin Efrusy). Somebody also pocketed a $7.5 million “finder’s fee” for helping to put the deal together.”

Pounding on its local advertising and becoming one of the fastest growing internet sites in the world, it has attracted a humongous $6 billion bid from the search giant, Google. However, Groupon would like to expand its arm as far as Europe and Latin America independently. Yesterday we discussed how Groupon is working on a deal that would get them a sum of $900 million additional funds.

With the company being positive that it could exceed Google’s bid by $1.7 billion in no time, the rejection was deemed a great decision. This was supported by a Russian investor who said that Groupon can be one of the most important players in the industry by staying independent. Tamas, who is considered as a major investor of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, and Groupon firmly believes that deal-of-the-day website could achieve more than what Google offered the company with its incredible growth over the last two years.

Groupon’s speedy rise to fame and a quite imitable business paradigm have also invited establishment of what is now known as “Groupon wannabes”. This is also in congruence with the predicted $16.1 billion growth of local online advertising. Recently, LivingSocial receives funding from Amazon.com and neophytes in the coupon world are gearing up since Google’s hunt for another “Groupon” gets a green light. Analysts has estimated that Groupon has annual revenue of anywhere from $500 million to $2 billion.