Facebook’s Life After Deals

The best or biggest deal, assertion, investment or other strategy this week.

Who: Facebook

What: Taking another approach to location-based services

Just a week after it said it would abandon its location-based service Places in favor of a new strategy, Facebook announced that it was getting out of the deals business. Facebook Deals was only around for four months, and syndicated deals from other companies, including Gilt City and OpenTable. Does this mean that Facebook failed at the Groupon game or that it doesn’t see a future in this business? Maybe neither. It’s possible that Facebook decided it wasn’t worthwhile to mess around in a very crowded industry when the social network can profit from being a platform where deal competitors can duke it out. After all, Groupon has been a substantial advertiser and American Express launched its take on deals exclusively on Facebook.

Street Smart Moves is published every Friday. If you have a vote for the single-best deal, assertion, investment or other strategy, let us know by Thursday. Read more Street Smart Moves here.