Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Lands Series F, AppLift Shifts Focus from Mobile Installs to Engagement

TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA

Foursquare Picks Up $33 Million Series F Investment (TechCrunch)
The round was co-led by Simon Ventures and Naver Corp, with participation from Union Square Ventures, an existing investor. Over the past four years, Foursquare has pivoted from a consumer-facing social application to an enterprise platform.

Behind Applift’s Rebrand, a Shift Toward Engagement (Street Fight)
It’s not uncommon for brands and marketers to see high installs, but potentially low numbers of quality engaged customers, and Applift is hoping to change that with the launch of its new solution.

Google’s Top Ad Exec to Leave for VC Firm (WSJ)
The executive at the helm of Google’s juggernaut online advertising business is stepping down, a rare shake-up at the highest echelons of the search giant.

Heard on The Street, Episode 13: Location Intelligence and Brewing Beer With Harry Dewhirst (Street Fight)
Harry Dewhirst may be the real-life version of Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man In the World.” President of location intelligence company Blis, he holds no permanent residence, dynamically bouncing among Airbnbs and hotels, including the undisclosed location in Singapore where we reached him for the latest episode of Heard on the Street.

The House of Data: How CDPs Can Help Email Marketers (MediaPost)
Firms have thrown money at CRM systems, data warehouses, data sheds, DMPs and other technologies. And now they are being urged to invest in something called a customer data platform (CDP). 

What We Still Don’t Know About the Facebook Data Breach (Verge)
It’s been three days since Facebook reported that hackers obtained access tokens for 50 million user accounts, in what is believed to be the largest such data breach in its history. Here’s what we’ve learned since then—and what we haven’t.

Microsoft CFO Explains Its M&A Strategy: Buying Communities (CNBC)
Microsoft has been working from a clear strategy for acquisitions in the past few years if you ask Amy Hood, the company’s chief financial officer. With deals like LinkedIn, Minecraft developer Mojang and most recently GitHub, Microsoft has been one of the largest dealmakers in recent memory.

This is How All Salesforce’s Pieces Fit Together (AdExchanger)
“We’re really focused on integration because that’s what customers are asking for,” said Jon Suarez-Davis, Marketing Cloud’s chief strategy officer. “They need systems that are integrated across marketing, commerce, sales and service. Doesn’t matter if it’s B2B or B2C, they need that integration.

Instagram Goes Down, Provoking Panic Among the Photophilic (VentureBeat)
As if Facebook wasn’t having enough problems, it must now confront the Great Instagram Apocalypse. At least, that’s how it felt to millions of users this morning when the photo-sharing service went down.