Fusion Corporate Partners

Family adventure parks operator Seven Peaks has acquired the assets of struggling regional online daily-deal provider CityDeals. Seven Peaks was one of the company’s creditors. They have acquired CityDeals’ assets – but not its liabilities – for an undisclosed sum.

As part of the acquisition, Seven Peaks is working with merchants to ensure all deals sold online to date through CityDeals will be honored. Seven Peaks is also working out arrangements to take care of any merchants that have been awaiting payment from CityDeals. Merchants involved with CityDeals are supportive of the transaction.

“Consumers and merchants have loved the value they’ve received from CityDeals over the years,” said Bruce Law, VP of Marketing at Seven Peaks. “Seven Peaks was one of those satisfied merchants. The acquisition of CityDeals by Seven Peaks assures that CityDeals will continue to provide tremendous benefits to consumers and regional business owners and have stamina to deliver those benefits over the long haul.”

USA, Utah,

Daily deals site BuyWithMe has made its sixth acquisition of the year, the purchase of TownHog.com, a San Francisco-based daily deals provider. TownHog is a venture of Dotblu Inc.

“TownHog’s success in the industry is notable,” said Jim Crowley, CEO of BuyWithMe, Inc. “They are a competitive force in multiple major markets around the country. We are excited to integrate their merchants and consumers into our ever-growing daily deal and merchant loyalty platform.”

USA, New York, NY

Related articles:

• BuyWithMe acquires Scoop St Posted on August 27, 2011
• BuyWithMe.com raises $5.5 Million From Matrix Partners Posted on January 24, 2010

Zave Networks, a business that offers money saving digital incentives online and on mobile device, has been acquired by Google. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Zave Networks announcement is below:

Since 2006, our small but dedicated team has been passionate about creating a better platform for incentive programs — like coupons and loyalty rewards — by making them 100% digital, easier, more measurable, efficient and environmentally-friendly.

In this time, we’ve never lost our pioneering spirit or our focus on simultaneously addressing the needs of three distinct customer groups: consumers, retailers and marketers. Because of this, we have been able to efficiently build, deploy and grow our platform.

When we had the opportunity to join Google, we felt it was the perfect fit for our company and the perfect opportunity to rapidly drive the deployment and use of our platform to the next level.

We’re humbled by the unending support our investors, retailers, advertisers, and consumers have provided over the past 5 years, and would like to thank each and every one of them. Going forward, we are excited about being part of Google’s efforts in this space.

Googles investment arm, Google Ventures has also invested in the space. They have made an investment in Texas based WhaleShark Media, a portfolio of coupon and deal websites – http://www.RetailMeNot.com , http://www.VoucherCodes.co.uk, http://www.Deals.com, http://www.Deals2Buy.com, http://www.Gutschein-Codes.de, http://www.CheapStingyBargains.com, http://www.CouponSeven.com, and http://www.CouponShare.com.

USA, Mountain View, CA & Kansas City, KS

BuyWithMe has acquired Scoop St., a social commerce company focused exclusively on New York City. BuyWithMe has already acquired LocalTwist, DealADayOnline, Groop Swoop and Edhance this year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Scoop St. was founded in 2009 and has grown organically as one of the pioneers of the group buying space. Since its inception, Scoop St. has developed deep relationships with local merchants across New York City and has introduced a number of product innovations for merchants and consumers, including unique events called Experiences and a membership loyalty program called Perks.

“As the leading merchant-centric daily deal site, BuyWithMe’s focus on creating long-term success for merchants aligns perfectly with the mission of Scoop St. since its founding two years ago,” said Jim Crowley, CEO of BuyWithMe, Inc.

USA, Boston, MA & New York, NY

Related articles:

• BuyWithMe.com raises $5.5 Million From Matrix Partners Posted on January 24, 2010

Local.com Corporation has acquired Screamin’ Media Group, Inc. (“SMG”), which operates Screamin’ Daily Deals (“SDD”), http://www.screamindailydeals.com, a daily deals business based in San Juan Capistrano, CA.

Local.com acquired SMG for $12.5 million in cash, stock and debt, with the opportunity for the SMG shareholders to earn up to an additional $20 million if certain financial performance criteria are met during the two-year period following the closing.

Founded in early 2010, SDD has approximately 60 employees serving subscribers with deals from local merchants in 14 markets throughout the U.S. including Los Angeles, Orange County, Salt Lake City and San Diego. SDD also recently launched travel deals at: http://getaways.screamindailydeals.com. SDD generated unaudited revenues of approximately $2.4 million in 2010 and $4.4 million during the first half of 2011.

SDD supports local communities with its School Rewards program, which allows consumers to donate 10 percent of SDD’s net proceeds from each deal to a school or non-profit organization chosen by the consumer. More than 700 local schools and non-profits benefit from this community program, which has donated over $400,000 to date.

SMG is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Local.com and will relocate to Local.com’s corporate headquarters in Irvine, Calif. Local.com’s social buying business, Spreebird, will absorb SDD’s operations and SDD will assume the Spreebird brand. SDD’s three co-founders, formerly president, CEO and COO, will become Spreebird’s vice presidents of sales and marketing, product and operations, respectively. Spreebird will continue to be led by Malcolm Lewis, Local.com’s senior vice president and general manager, social buying.

“The acquisition of SMG serves our mission of connecting brick-and-mortar merchants with online consumers by extending our reach directly to thousands of local merchants in 14 markets. This transaction diversifies our revenues and provides us with a new way to engage consumers,” said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and CEO. “School Rewards is a terrific program that allows us to develop a more meaningful relationship with merchants and consumers by enabling them to contribute financially to their local schools. We look forward to working with the SDD team to accelerate their rapid growth while expanding the School Rewards program.”

USA, Irvine, CA

Related articles:

• Local.com acquires location-based shopping data company Krillion Posted on May 10, 2011
• Local.com to acquire the assets of Rovion February 17, 2011
• Local.com acquires the assets of local domain advertising company OCTANE360 Posted on July 1, 2010

eBay Inc. is to acquire Zong, a leading provider of payments through mobile carrier billing, for total consideration of approximately $240 million in cash. Zong leverages connections with more than 250 mobile network operators around the world, offering localized, secure and easy-to-use payments capabilities for digital goods and services in 21 languages and 45 countries. Combined with PayPal’s global payment platform serving 100 million active accounts worldwide, the company expects that Zong will add complementary technology and talent that help strengthen PayPal’s position in mobile payments and digital goods.

Zong allows consumers to easily pay for purchases from their mobile phones or computers through direct carrier billing. Consumers simply enter their mobile phone numbers. Then, in a matter of seconds, Zong verifies that number and clears the payment on the customer’s existing wireless service account.

“Commerce is changing. With mobile phones, we walk around with a mall in our pockets. PayPal helps to make money work better for customers in this new commerce reality – no matter how they want to pay or what device they’re using,” said Scott Thompson, president of PayPal. “We believe that Zong will strengthen this value by helping us reach the more than 4 billion people who have mobile phones, giving them more choice and security when they pay.”

PayPal is an industry leader in mobile payments and digital goods. PayPal expects to transact more than $3 billion in mobile payments in 2011. Currently, more than 8 million customers are making purchases on their mobile phones through PayPal, driving up to $10 million in mobile payments per day.

Earlier this year, PayPal launched PayPal for Digital Goods, a new product that lets buyers pay in two clicks without leaving their gaming experience or content site. In 2010, PayPal processed $3.4 billion in payments for digital goods.

eBay Inc. does not expect the acquisition of Zong to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in conjunction with its first quarter earnings release on April 27, 2011. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval, and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.

USA, San Jose, CA & Menlo Park, CA

Related articles:

• eBay is to acquire Magento  Posted on June 8, 2011
• eBay to Acquire location media company WHERE Posted on April 21, 2011
• eBay to acquire shares in Turkey’s GittiGidiyor Posted on April 21, 2011
• eBay to acquire GSI Commerce for $2.4BN Posted onMarch 28, 2011
• eBay to acquire brands4friends for $200 million Posted on December 20, 201o
• eBay Acquires RedLaser (barcode-scanning application for iPhone) Posted on June 30, 2010
• eBay Inc. Completes Sale of Skype to investor group led by Silver Lake Posted on November 19, 2009

Move, Inc., an online real estate firm, has acquired SocialBios, a social search platform. SocialBios allows individuals and companies to create one social hub for their  online profiles through interactive ‘About Us’ pages that simplify the discovery of shared connections on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare and Google without sacrificing their privacy. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Real estate is inherently a social business. Today’s search experience is highly interactive and instant with the explosion of mobile in real estate. We’re uniquely positioned to lead our industry and connect people naturally through their social graph,” said Scott Boecker, chief product officer at Move, Inc.  “This acquisition brings a new element of discovery and creativity to our online real estate marketplace as we evolve our web, mobile and social search experiences.”

As part of the acquisition, SocialBios founder Ernie Graham and co-founders Ira McMahon and Andrew Van Tassel have joined the product development team at Move, Inc. Graham, who will head up Move’s social product strategy and development team, will work with the Move’s franchise and broker customers to develop social graphing strategies that help them facilitate more connections between their agents and brokers with consumers.

The SocialBios office and team of social experts will be based in Denver, Colorado. The SocialBios website, products and brand will remain in production and available to real estate professionals.

USA, Cambpell, CA & Denver, CO