AT&T has sold a 53 percent stake in its Yellow Pages business to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital for $950 million. This works out to a valuation of $1.8 billion. The deal involves both the Advertising Solutions and AT&T…
Home and trade lead sites often take a simple, category-by-category directory approach, but visual contractor rankings might make more sense, argues Jiyan Wei, cofounder of BuildZoom. Wei says his team canvassed home and trade sites such as Angie’s List, ServiceMagic,…
Google's GoMo effort just took a step forward by offering free do-it-yourself mobile website creation. GoMo, for those unfamiliar, is the search giant's program to evangelize the benefits of websites that are optimized for mobile devices. The goal is cleaner…
There's been lots of talk over the past 24 hours about Google's new "Project Glass," and yes it's pretty cool. For those unfamiliar, this is Google's project to develop eyewear that overlays media and search information (think directions or local…
Manta announced today that it received a $44 million minority equity investment from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners. The exact proportion of the holding sold to the firm is undisclosed, but its minority stake puts the valuation…
Localeze, a provider of business listings, announced a partnership today with Locationary, a local data management company, to simplify the exchange of local business listings. Localeze will use Locationary's "Saturn" cloud-based data management and exchange platform to streamline the sharing…
ILM East 2012 took place last week in Boston and is now one for the history books. It was definitely a fun show that really showcased the fast moving local innovations that BIA/Kelsey focuses on. There are many learnings we…
The staff of Italy's leading directory publisher, Seat Pagine Gialle, is in a state of shock following the sudden death last week of its popular CEO, who is credited with saving the company from collapse. Alberto Cappellini died March 25 from…
Ted Leonsis, Groupon vice chair, American Express board member and Internet pioneer, emphasized the importance of scaling for local in a global economy during a keynote at ILM East yesterday. “Indiana really matters. India matters more,” said Leonsis, pointing out…
Tom Bates, Founder, Kudzu Wiley Cerilli, CEO, SinglePlatform Dave Galvan, President, Schedulicity Randy Parker, President, SMBApps John Vitti, Cofounder and CMO, Mobile Spinach Which SMB solutions will stand out and make a difference in 2012? Our SMB SuperForum discussed some…
Merrill Brown, principal of MMB Media, joined ILM East conference architect Peter Krasilovsky on stage this morning to talk about the transition of hyperlocal and hypervertical sites from unprofitable hobby sites for civic and mom-and-pop organizations to one that is…
BIA/Kelsey's chief strategy officer and ILM program director, Matt Booth, led a discussion with David Hornik, principal, August Capital, at ILM East. Hornik has had an eclectic career ranging from computer music to intellectual property attorney, entrepreneur, and now venture…
Juan Delgado, Managing Director, Americas, Perform John McIntyre, CEO, Backyard Randa Minkarah, Senior VP of Revenue and Business Development, Fisher Communications David Simon, VP, Advertising Solutions, Local Corp. Video is everywhere you look, from your smartphone to the back of…
Today at BIA/Kelsey's ILM East conference, Christine Merritt, Google's head of business development of channel sales, revealed the inner workings of the AdWords local reseller program. This follows closely behind lots of industry consternation, given some of Google's shifting moves…
During the first ever public presentation of Google Offers at ILM East today, Google Offers head Nitin Mangtani noted that Google Offers is now live in 40 cities, but he emphasized that Google’s after more more than just deals. The…
The biggest boom in local is actually national. With geotargeting options, better metrics and better creative national brands and agencies are increasingly going the local route. GroupM research shows that 83 percent of brand advertisers expect their local online spending…
BIA/Kelsey Program Director Mike Boland ran yet another data packed and insightful mobile forum that attendees have come to love and expect at each BIA/Kelsey conference. With a power-packed lineup of speakers, Boland and the panelists covered the waterfront of…
Geoff Cramer, CEO of SocialMadeSimple Adam Japko, President of Digital Sherpa Mark Schmulen, General Manager of Social Media for Constant Contact Neil Kataria, President of newBrandAnalytics Catherine Tucker, Associate Professor of Marketing for MIT Sloan School of Management Social Local…
Today at BIA/Kelsey's ILM East conference, outgoing Citygrid Media CEO Jay Herratti gave a retrospective view of the past five years of local media -- what has worked and what hasn't. He also didn't miss the opportunity to make some…
Eight billion dollars. That's the total estimate of political advertising spend this year given by Andy Slater, vice president of digital agency sales at Katz 360, during our morning session of day 2 at ILM East. Of $8 billion, Slater…