Street Fight Daily: 10.21.11

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Groupon has put to rest speculation about its IPO. It is on, albeit at a slightly lower valuation than originally expected. It intends to raise between $480 million to $540 million in the public markets, setting a valuation range between $10.1 billion and $11.4 billion. (AllThingsD)

“The daily deal companies are version 1.0 of great things you can build with the Internet that help local merchants drive foot traffic into the door,” says Dennis Crowley in an interview. “What we are doing with Foursquare is version 2.” (TechCrunch)

Just four months after he got there, Jeff DeBalko is departing the Bay Area News Group, where he has been chief revenue officer. He offers practical and pointed strategic advice for running a local news business. (Knight Digital Media Center)

There are a lot of mobile check-in apps, photo apps and travel apps out there. But most of them keep where you went, how you got there and what that place looked like separate. HipGeo aims to put all of that information in one place with an iPhone app that passively keeps track of your movements and can then, with just a few clicks, spit out a slick, animated travel diary. (GigaOm)

Groupon basically broke even in Q3. The company’s operating loss shrank from $101 million last quarter to $239,000 this quarter. This suggests the company will soon be nicely profitable, writes Henry Blodget. (Business Insider)

LivingSocial launched its time- and location-limited Instant Deals in Chicago on Thursday. The hyperlocal deals are offered only to customers within a few blocks or miles of a merchant, and the deal usually is limited to a single day or a few hours. (Crain’s Chicago Business)

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