Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Eyes Funding, SEC Presses Groupon

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

Foursquare Looks Into A Fourth Round At An Over $700M Valuation, Investors Skeptical (TechCrunch)
Foursquare has been taking VC meetings recently, looking into raising a Series D round of funding of between $50 million and $100 million according to multiple sources. From what we’re hearing the company seeks to flesh out this round at a pre-money valuation of between $700 million and $800 million, and that number has a few VC shops skeptical due to its growth trends, which have not gotten more inspiring after the company’s recent June redesign, according to multiple sources.

SEC Asked Groupon for Financial Disclosures (The Wall Street Journal)
The Securities and Exchange Commission this summer began pressing Groupon to disclose more details on revenue from its new business lines and on reasons behind the daily-deal site’s financial revision this spring, according to newly disclosed correspondence between the regulator and the company. The questioning from SEC staff is Groupon’s latest run-in with the regulator.

Yelp’s Flaws Become Apple Maps Flaws in iOS 6 (GigaOm)
There’s been plenty of anecdotal evidence already offered that Maps needs work — at times location data is missing or directions were wrong. But on more than one occasion Maps have led users astray because of the user-sourced business information that Apple is using from Yelp.

How SMBs View Online Media (MediaPost)
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) spent $1,190 on average during the past 12 months to improve Web sites and other Web properties, such as social networks and optimized mobile sites, up from $876 in Q4 2011, according to BIA/Kelsey. The latest — Local Commerce Monitor Wave 16 — research conducted with Ipsos reveals that SMBs now use 5.8 different media on average, a major increase from prior analyses.

Downtown Goes Dark on Foursquare (Gizmodo)
As saltwater poured into Manhattan, Manhattanites fled to higher, electrified ground like Wi-Fi rats. New Yorkers’ Foursquare checkins, charted by the company itself, show a massive exodus northward, out of the Dead Zone and into techie comfort.

How the Fragmented World of Mobile Wallets Will Sow Confusion (GigaOm)
The market for mobile wallets is getting awfully crowded with Isis, the carrier joint venture joining the fray. But all of these options, which are not ubiquitous, are likely to create a lot of confusion for consumers and merchants slowing down the adoption of mobile payments.

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