Street Fight Daily: Lenders Take Over Hibu, Uber Could See $3.5B Valuation

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology

Yellow Pages Owner Hibu Handed Over To Lenders (BBC)
Lenders have taken control of Yellow Pages owner Hibu in a restructuring deal that will leave nothing for shareholders but aims to save jobs. Hibu’s fall from grace came after it expanded too rapidly during the last decade only to see its business model of listing local small businesses undermined by more generic online search engines such as Google.

New Tool From Drawbridge Helps Marketers Bridge the Gap Between Desktop and Mobile (Street Fight)
Seven months after bringing its flagship cross-device and audience retargeting products to market, Drawbirdge has launched a new mobile retargeting product that enables marketers to target existing users based on a previous activity – say, an app download – as they move across apps, mobile web, and desktop browsers.

Fast Car: Uber Funding Auction Could Reach a $3.5B Valuation (AllThingsD)
Uber, the ride-logistics startup, could be valued at up to $3.5 billion in a new funding round led by TPG Capital, said multiple sources close to the discussions, which are ongoing but advanced. In recent weeks, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick hasn’t been particularly discreet about his company’s fundraising efforts, which sources said could bring the company more than $100 million in investment funds for use in expansion of its offerings.

5 Keys To Making Local Listings Count (Street Fight)
Local listing sites have mushroomed in recent years, sending local businesses scurrying to get their digital houses in order. In a Street Fight webinar Thursday sponsored by YP, David Mihm of Moz, and YP’s Deepak Thakral discussed the growing impact of listings in local search, and outlined a handful of first steps that local businesses can take to improve their presence online.

Steve Case on LivingSocial: ‘I’m Still A Believer’ (Washington Business Journal)
The last two investments of his Revolution Growth fund — $23.5 million in Lanham-based Optoro and $40 million in Austin-based Bigcommerce — drive that point home. The former AOL chief is building up a substantial portfolio of companies looking to reshape retail. And he hasn’t written off (literally or figuratively) his original local commerce bet: LivingSocial Inc., despite its recent troubles.

Apple Working On Location-Aware Battery Management For iPhone (TechCrunch)
Apple has been tinkering with ways to make the iPhone better at managing battery life intelligently based on usage pattern, a new patent filing published by the USPTO today (spotted by AppleInsider) reveals. The application describes a system that learns your habits, evaluates how much power is needed between your usual charges and does everything it can to keep the phone running when you’re away from power sources.

Seamless: How a Dot-Com Startup Adapted to Changing Tastes (Mashable)
Seamless was spun out from Aramark, took $50 million in financing from Spectrum Equity Investors and aggressively moved into the consumer market through a mix of advertising, app updates and acquisitions. Now, Seamless has more than two million customers ordering takeout from 12,000 restaurants in more than 40 cities. The company generated $85 million in revenue in 2012, thanks to a 60% increase in its consumer business from the previous year, and the company expects to top $100 million this year.

L’Oreal, Walgreen’s Look to Measure Effectiveness of Mobile Coupons (AdAge)
Oreal has teamed up with Walgreens and Duane Reade locations in Manhattan for a mobile coupon campaign aimed at solving mobile advertising’s fundamental problem: Connecting mobile ads to real-world purchases. The campaign involves ad tech startup Sparkfly serving L’Oreal product coupons within popular women’s beauty app Pretty in my Pocket, which are then redeemed at Walgreens or Duane Reade stores in New York’s Manhattan borough.

Google+ Local For iOS Will Be Pulled On August 7th After Being Integrated Into Google Maps (TheNextWeb)
Google+ Local for iOS, Google’s mobile search and discovery app, will cease to exist on August 7th, just over one year after it made its appearance on iPads and iPhones. According to an email from the Mountview company (h/t Engadget), Google+ Local for iOS will no longer be available as a standalone app on mobile Apple devices.

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