Street Fight Daily: CityPockets Closure, Qype Surges in Europe

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

Closure of CityPockets Provides Window Into Daily Deal Biz Shakeout (GigaOm)
The company’s CEO Cheryl Yeoh says the chatter among smaller companies in the space used to be about ways to get bigger through venture funding, but that conversation has shifted more to talk of exit strategies. “At the first daily deals summit, it was more about partnerships,” she said. “Now it’s smaller companies trying to sell and pitch to bigger companies.”

Qype, The Yelp Of Europe, Claims Top Dog Status With 860,000 Places Reviewed (TechCrunch)
While companies like Groupon are trying to move beyond the daily deal to become the platform for local commerce, Qype is doubling-down on the concept, expanding its own deals offerings with a free service to attract more local businesses to the concept.

AT&T Completes YP Sale (BIA/Kelsey)
AT&T has finalized the sale of 53 percent of its Yellow Pages operation to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital, which has launched YP Holdings LLC. The new company will be led by newly appointed CEO David Krantz, who had been running AT&T interactive, the digital arm of AT&T’s directories business.

Google Offers Start Appearing on Maps, Coming to More Properties Soon (AllThingsD)
Google has started to integrate Groupon-like offers into Google Maps, and it’s not stopping there. Eric Rosenblum, Google’s director of product management for Google Offers, said consumers will start seeing offers for restaurants, spas and other services on a variety of Google properties soon.

DNAinfo Cleans Up in New York Press Club Awards (Capital New York)
Manhattan-based hyperlocal startup DNAinfo was one of the two biggest winners in this year’s New York Press Club awards. The insurgent and curiously-named local news site picked up six wins in the annual journalism competition. That’s more than any other outlet except for the Associated Press, which also won in six categories.

Infographic: Is Groupon a Sound Investment or Risky Business? (Mashable)
The infographic, based on research gathered by BackgroundCheck.org, details the high and low points of Groupon’s finances and stock offerings, and breaks down a hypothetical coupon scenario to demonstrate how money is distributed to merchants.

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