LivingSocial, a well known daily deals site, may scrap any thoughts of an IPO in 2011 and instead raise $200 million . The funding round would include equity and debt with efforts led by JPMOrgan Chase. LivingSocial would invite current investors to contribute as well as bring in new ones. READ MORE
Revenues were up for Groupon in August, though the daily deals craze as a whole was looking a bit grim about the mouth. The company gained 2 percent market share this past month and revenue jumped 13 percent to $120.7 million according to TechCrunch. Groupon Getaways, the company’s travel offering, also saw a growth in revenue, from $5.7 million in July to $9.6 million in August. READ MORE
Foursquare announced that the location-based service is teaming up with Groupon to regular site-specific deals. Both Groupon’s daily deals and the company’s Groupon Now deals will appear. Foursquare’s ten million members worldwide will see these deals when they check in at bars, restaurants, and other locales. READ MORE
Passengers of Delta Airlines will now have access to location-based deals on the company’s website, powered by daily deal giant LivingSocial. The partnership, announced Friday, gives customers access to deals through the “My Trips” tab. READ MORE
Following up on its prime competitor Groupon’s $750 million IPO earlier this month, LivingSocial is reportedly in talks with bankers to file an initial public offering of its own. According to CNBC, the IPO would be valued between $10 and $15 billion. READ MORE
Pokki, an application store with Apple-like design, has launched and now brings rich mobile app experiences to the desktop, with a Mac release slated for later this year. Created by San Diego-based startup SweetLabs, Pokki gives PC users access to “Pokkis,” the service’s web-connected desktop applications via the Pokki store which sits conveniently alongside installed Pokkis in the menu bar where users are presented with an always-connected, browser-free interface to web content. READ MORE
If you want to enter the daily deals market without anyone knowing, introduce it in a state with 15 people per square mile. That’s what Amazon did yesterday, rolling out AmazonLocal in Boise, Idaho. Despite Amazon’s stealth, The Next Web picked up on the story. READ MORE
With Groupon adding 150 employees a month, and LivingSocial’s third office space already bursting at the seams, the Associated Press reports that deal sites are becoming so popular that their office are starting to look as crowded as their subscribers’ inboxes. Exponential growth of these sites—including hundreds of clone or niche deal sites—might look like a bubble. READ MORE
While the number of daily deal sites has proliferated, this grid by Online MBA pits the four biggies—LivingSocial, Groupon, Facebook, Google—along such key metrics as membership base, retailer’s cut and mobile apps available. See what site comes out ahead. Read more from Online MBA. READ MORE
In a move that brings the world’s dominant social network into direct competition with the daily-deal juggernaut Groupon, Facebook will launch a new “Deals” program in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco. READ MORE
