Street Fight Daily: Groupon Sells TicketMonster Stake, Verve Hires New CEO
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon Sells Controlling Stake in Korean Site Ticket Monster for $360 Million (Recode)… Verve Mobile Taps Acxiom’s Stirratt As CEO (MediaPost)… ‘Mobilegeddon’ Could Be Bad News For 40% of Top Websites (USA Today)…
First Data Wants to Turn Its Payment Empire Into a Local Marketing Juggernaut
First Data, the payment processing giant, wants to be more than just a black box on the counter. We caught up with Peter Karpas, global head of SMB product, to talk about moving beyond the payment business, the company’s acquisition strategy, and where the world’s largest payment process fits into the future of small business…