Street Fight Daily: Samsung Buys Viv, Twitter Aims to Close Buyer Search This Month

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

Buying Viv, Samsung Makes Its ‘Me Too’ Virtual Assistant Play (Search Engine Land)
Feeling intensifying pressure from Google, Apple and Amazon, Samsung has acquired virtual assistant Viv. CEO Dag Kittlaus, who ran Siri before Apple bought it, will continue to operate Viv “independently” but still work closely with Samsung

Twitter to Conclude Sale Deliberations This Month (Reuters)
Twitter has told potential acquirers it is seeking to conclude negotiations about selling itself by the time it reports third-quarter earnings on Oct. 27, according to people familiar with the matter. Recode: Google and Disney will not make Twitter bids, and Apple is unlikely to do so.

Lyft’s Melnick: ‘No Magic Bullet’ for Building a Multisided Marketplace (Street Fight)
Conjuring up up a community of drivers and passengers for a ride-hailing service from scratch is no easy feat. We recently caught up with Lyft’s New York City manager Seth Melnick to talk about the challenges of multi-sided local marketplaces and about what the company is doing to extend its reach in the city.

New Health-Food Drive Thru in Arizona Rethinks the QSR Category (Business Insider)
Fast food drive-thrus are attractive for four main reasons: the food’s cheap, fast, delicious, and you never need to leave your car. A new chain is offering those four things plus one more: food that’s healthy.

McClatchy Strategy: Go Big and Small to Create ‘Moments’ with Each Reader (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: Like other chains of dailies, the company is pouring resources into how to make the long leap from a no-longer-secure print past to an alluring but uncertain digital today and tomorrow. In this recent Q&A McClatchy’s Chris Hendricks and Dan Schaub detail how their company is planning to meet that future.

An Inside Look at Snapchat’s New Advertising API Technology (AdAge)
Snapchat has fired up its ads API – application programming interface – that allows third-party partners to plug into the app and deliver ads for brands and agencies.

Theraflu is Mapping Colds and Flu Outbreaks Down to the Retail Level (GeoMarketing)
Just in time for the sore throats and other seasonal sickness, GSK Consumer Healthcare is launching a campaign to introduce its Theraflu ExpressMaxTM Caplets that promises to connect consumers feeling fluish with local retailers that carry the brand.

Bots Are the New Apps, Only They Suck (For Now) (Digiday)
Max Willens: For most of the media business so far, bots — like live video, distributed content teams, virtual reality, augmented reality, AI and a dozen other doodads — might be the future, but they’re not the present.

Animoto Launches Tool to Help Brands and SMBs Alike Make Videos for Social Media (VentureBeat)
Animoto — yes, that Animoto — on Thursday launched a video storyboard editor designed to let any business simply craft social videos with as little fuss as possible.

Delivery Drivers Sue Amazon, Alleging Violation of Labor Laws (Wall Street Journal)
Amazon.com Inc. is being sued by three drivers, making the online retail giant the latest company to face legal action over the use of independent contractors in its delivery operation.

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