Spreehive founders sever partnership

PROVIDENCE – Co-founders of group discount website Spreehive announced the end of their joint ownership July 5.
Spreehive President Anthony Gemma and CEO Claude Arnell Milhouse amicably dissolved their partnership last week citing creative differences.
Milhouse will keep the Spreehive name while Gemma said he will launch a similar, but more robust, discount-buying website on Monday called Local Owl.
“We concluded that we would be best served by devoting our respective energies to business opportunities which we have developed independently of each other,” Gemma said in a statement.
Spreehive launched Feb. 28. It offers coupons to Rhode Island consumers, similarly to websites like Groupon and LivingSocial, but Spreehive also donates 5 percent of the revenue from each deal to a charity of the buyer’s choice. The remaining revenue is divided so the merchant receives 60 percent and 35 percent goes to Spreehive.
The company planned to expand to more than 20 states and three countries within a year of its founding, Milhouse told Providence Business News in March.