Street Fight Daily: Living Social Flush, AOL at Juncture
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
LivingSocial Steers Clear of IPO (WSJ)
LivingSocial Inc. Chief Executive Tim O’Shaughnessy said the daily-deals company has no immediate plans to file for an initial public offering, citing a flush revenue stream from its coupon business and the lessons learned from other tech IPOs. Chief Financial Officer John Bax said the company was no longer raising funds after closing on about $176 million in financing early this year. “We don’t need funds how we’re configured today,” he said.
SOURCE: AOL Faces Brutal Choice On Patch — Close It Or Double Down (SAI)
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has a simple but brutal choice to make about Patch, a source close to the ad sales side of the local news business told us over lunch recently: Ditch it or double down and take the thing national, opening a Patch in every significant market in the country.
Cox Target Media Acquires Discounts Site Savings.com to Create Couponing Giant (The Next Web)
Media and marketing firm Cox Target Media has announced the acquisition ofSavings.com – a site which, as its name suggests, is a destination for savings and personalized deals. The move boosts Cox Target Media’s online marketing offering by positions Savings.com alongside its existing Valpak brand, which offers localized print and digital savings through a network of franchisees across North America.
TripAdvisor Relaunches Local Picks Facebook App, for Restaurant Tips from Friends and Locals (The Next Web)
Its Local Picks app was actually launched a number of years back, but was put into hiatus some time in 2010 for reasons not entirely known. Now, however, it has been rolled out again to tap the Facebook social graph and let users garner dining recommendations from locals and friends.
Knight-backed Peepol.TV Aims To Be a Social Network for Live Video (Nieman Journalism Lab)
Heusser sees Peepol.TV being used in sporting events, concerts, traffic, or any place where lots of people are gathered for a common purpose. He wants to “democratize access to live content,” making it easy for someone to find out what’s happening nearby or to start shooting on a moment’s notice when news breaks.
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