Yahoo7, the Australian subsidiary of search giant Yahoo, has jumped into the group-buying fray and snapped up Aussie deal site Spreets for $40 million, the companies said today.

Spreets is just one of dozens of Australian group-buying companies, which usually feature a deal of the day for members who are offered deals and vouchers at local merchants at discounted prices.

Yahoo7, which is a partnership between Yahoo and Australiaa4��a4�s Channel 7, had clearly been keeping an eye on the companya4��a4�s booming growth. Founded only a year ago by Dean McEvoy and Justus Hammer, it now claims 500,000 members and broke even in less than 12 months.

The group-buying sector was recently assessed as being worth $100 million annually, making it a tempting target for companies looking to diversify into new and hip revenue stream.

Indeed, investors interested in grabbing a piece of the white-hot social buying market have been throwing money into the sector for months now, as shopping recommendation site��ShopSocially announced $1.1 million in first round financing, and Spanish coupon site��Groupalia locked down a4s�5 million in its second institutional round of funding.

The industry grabbed headlines earlier this year when well-known deal site Groupon famously snubbed a $6 billion buyout offer from Google. It will reportedly instead plan an IPO that values the company at $9 billion or more.

Todaya4��a4�s deal is part of a larger trend in investments in startup social media sites that focus on spreading the word about shopping deals.

These sites include a4��Afriend meet-upa4��� forums like SocialMedia, or companies like��Groupon that specialize in finding discount deals on everything from luxury brands to restaurant coupons.

The Yahoo7 joint venture, formed in 2006, acquired Australian travel site Totaltravel.com in 2009.

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Companies: channel7, Google, Groupalia, Groupon, Livingsocial, livingsocially, spreets, totaltravel, Yahoo, yahoo7

Companies: channel7, Google, Groupalia, Groupon, Livingsocial, livingsocially, spreets, totaltravel, Yahoo, yahoo7

Riley McDermid is a contributing reporter to VentureBeat. She was previously the online editor at institutional investing and trading forum Markets Media, which she joined in 2008 from Dow Jones/MarketWatch in New York. Her work has appeared in the The New York Times, the Associated Press, Portfolio Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Barrona4��a4�s. She has won awards from the American Society of Business Publishers and Editors, the Magazine Association of the Southeast, the Mississippi Press Association and the Atlanta Press Club, and was a finalist for the Pacemaker Prize for excellence in news reporting.

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