Street Fight Daily: Ebay Settles Proxy Dispute, Gowalla Founder’s Second Take
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology
EBay, Carl Icahn Settle Heated PayPal Dispute (Wall Street Journal)
The e-commerce company said on Thursday it hashed out a deal with Carl Icahn to end his months-long effort to get eBay to spin off payments unit PayPal. EBay agreed to make former AT&T Chief Executive David Dorman a director, and Mr. Icahn will drop support for two men he had nominated for eBay’s board.
Openings and New Hires at ReachLocal, Main Street Hub, Digital First (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at Hulu, Company Town, Angie’s List, Factual, Search Influence, and Facebook.
Gowalla Founder Josh Williams Raises $2.1 Million To Have Another Go At Local Mobile Discovery Apps (TechCrunch)
After several years spent building location-based mobile products, Gowalla founder Josh Williams is back with another venture that’s focused on improving the way we explore our everyday world. Shortly after leaving Facebook last year he founded a new venture that they called The Last Guide Company along with former Dropbox and Facebook designer Adam Michela.
Why UrbanSitter Raised $15M to Simplify Booking Babysitters (Street Fight)
UrbanSitter shows parents which sitters are hired and recommended by others in their community, and allows real-time updates and interaction when the sitters are on the job. Street Fight recently caught up with UrbanSitter founder and CEO Lynn Perkins to talk about the challenges in building trust and how her company thrives in the “flexible work economy” facilitated by mobile apps.
Bezos Confirms AmazonFresh Expansion Plans, Says Drones Are for Real (Recode)
Grocery delivery fans outside of Seattle and California, rejoice: Amazon plans to expand its AmazonFresh offering beyond its current three markets, CEO Jeff Bezos confirmed in his 2013 letter to shareholders published today. Several reports over the past year have said Amazon plans to expand the delivery service into 10 to 20 more new markets this year, but this may be the first time Bezos has publicly acknowledged the expansion plans.
IAB: $43 Billion In 2013 Digital Ad Revenue, Mobile Doubles (SearchEngineLand)
The IAB has just released its annual report on US digital advertising. The trade association said that Q4 2013 revenues hit $12.1 billion, and full year revenues were $42.8 billion, beating broadcast TV for the first time. The 2013 numbers grew by 17 percent over 2012. Last year the IAB reported $36.6 billion in full year ad revenue.
It’s Official: Small Businesses Love LinkedIn (and Social Media) (Inc.)
The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth released a new study that shows the big-picture trends in social media use among the Inc. 500–the fastest growing private companies in the United States– in 2013. For the second year in a row, LinkedIn ranked as the most used platform, capturing 88 percent of those surveyed
YP Adds Cloud-Based ‘Mybook’ to Boost Engagement, Utility (Screenwerk)
YP has formally announced its multi-platform favorites functionality called Mybook. Simply put, Mybook offers a way for signed-in consumers to organize and save businesses for later review or retrieval from any device.
Flushd Wants To Build A Network Around The In-Stall Experience (FastCompany)
Are you ready for the “bathroom economy”? That’s what CEO Edwards wants to create with the Flushd app, which is based around about 100,000 bathroom listings from Foursquare. You can review and rate public bathrooms, make use of an “emergency locator button” to find the nearest john, and digest content curated for “in-stall” consumption.
LBMA Podcast: Xapp, Mobiquity, and Beacons at the Ballpark (Street Fight)
Top stories of the week include voice recognition ads from Xapp + NPR; Mobiquity’s BLE beacon SDK; Minified’s Telescope Cards + Foursquare; Coke’s Radar for Good campaign in Romania; the launch of TheGoodData; and funding news from Alignable and Lyft. Special guest is Rafi Haladjian, founder of Sense.
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