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Monday, March 5, 2012

3/6 TechCrunch

TechCrunch
More Mobile Ad Consolidation: Carrier SingTel Buys Amobee For $321 Million
March 5, 2012 at 12:09 PM
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The mobile ad market is projected to bring in revenues of $2.6 billion this year, and while that is only a small fraction of the wider opportunity in digital advertising, the space — fueled by the smartphone boom — is only going to get bigger, and that is attracting those looking for an early foothold. Today saw another example of that coming into shape: pan-Asian carrier SingTel today announced it would buy California-based Amobee to expand its own mobile advertising business, in a deal with $321 million.
SingTel — which has 434 million mobile customers in 25 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand — is banking on brands wanting to target customers with mobile ads in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in emerging markets.
This is not SingTel’s first move into mobile ads but an extension of an existing operation: it says it already offers “geo-localization” services, and the capability of sending local deals and marketing promotions based on a customer’s profile.
Amobee will give SingTel the ability to integrate those existing capabilities with its own an ad-serving platform that covers banner and rich-media ads. As all of Amobee’s existing employees, including CEO Trevor Healy, will be joining SingTel, it also gives the carrier a bolted-on team experienced in mobile ads.
And as Amobee is in Redwood City, it also gives SingTel another route to tap into the Silicon Valley scene. The carrier has a venture fund, Innov8, which has made some investments in the Asia region (such as leading a $6.5 million round for group buying site Dealised) but this could open the door to looking at more companies in the U.S. as well.
What’s not clear is how this deal will affect Amobee’s existing customer relationships when SingTel takes the company in-house. Amobee is the world’s biggest mobile ad company but it has an impressive list of customers, in addition to its ability to deliver a full suite of mobile ad services. Current customers include Google, Skype, eBay, Barnes & Noble, Nokia and France Telecom. We will ask and update the post as we learn more.
Amobee will be rolled into SingTel’s Digital Life operations. This is a new business line that SingTel (like European counterpart Telefonica) has created to try to get the most out of all of its digital assets. The other two divisions at SingTel are consumer and enterprise/wholesale services.
E-marketer estimates that mobile advertising will be worth $2.6 billion in 2012, and while that number represents significant growth over the year before (it’s more than double the $1 billion of 2011) it’s still just a tiny fraction of the billions that will be made in digital advertising as a whole — and the number is positively dwarfed by overall ad market covering more traditional outlets like TV, newspapers, outdoor, etc. Still for those looking to pick the horse that might win future races, $321 million sounds like a good bet.
The deal is expected to complete before June 2012.





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Targeting Merchants, Square Debuts Register iPad App And Analytics; Now Processing $4B In Payments Per Year
March 5, 2012 at 9:33 AM
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As we reported earlier this year, mobile payments company Square revealed that it was planning to add a number of new operational capabilities and data analysis to the register, including in-depth analytics. Tonight, Square is debuting this functionality in the form of a new iPad app. The app aims to replicate the actual experience of a register, similar to Square’s existing iPad app. But this new, free app, called Square Register, comes as a more full-fledged point of sale offering.
The app has a completely new UI, and a better integration with Card Case, which is Square’s consumer-facing loyalty, payments and merchant-discovery app. For example, merchants can publish their business’ profile to the Card Case directory so customers can find them as they explore a given city. The app also includes customer notifications, so merchants know when regulars and new customers arrive at their store using Card Case.
Basically, the new app’s UI has been reconfigured so that it's a perfect fit for brick and mortar businesses, whether they have 10 items or 10,000. Custom item arrangement allows merchants to create a mobile version of their store.
The new app and Square also features in-depth analytics, allowing merchants to segment consumer payments data and transactions. The dashboard provides a glance of basic sales information and recent transaction history, including the number of payments, subtotals, tax, tips, refunds, account deposits, etc. It also shows several interactive data sets, breaking down sales by month, days of the week, time of day, and even size of payment. Merchants can access and explore these analytics when they log into their Square account online as well.
Additionally, Square says it is now processing $4 billion in payments volume per year, which is up from $2 billion in mobile payments volume expected in October 2011.
For Square, this new app is about giving merchants tools for free that big-box retailers have been enjoying for years. The company’s existing iPad app was released last year, and the app has seen increased adoption amongst brick and mortar businesses. So this app aims to provide merchants with even more features to help make running a business easier. And Square is betting on the iPad as the go-to device for smaller merchants to manage their businesses.






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A Yelp Review Of Yelp Stock
March 5, 2012 at 7:26 AM
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H/t Hunter Walk and articles from Leena Rao, Colleen Taylor, Henry Blodget, and Om Malik.
Disclosure: If it’s not obvious, these are not the actual star rankings from these authors.





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A Yelp Review Of Yelp Stock
March 5, 2012 at 7:26 AM
yelp logo
H/t Hunter Walk and articles from Leena Rao, Colleen Taylor, Henry Blodget, and Om Malik.
Disclosure: If it’s not obvious, these are not the actual star rankings from these authors.






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yelp-logo.jpeg?w=150 (JPEG Image)
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