NYT DealBook report on Groupon's purchase of Hyperpublic here. Excerpt:
Mr. Cooper said he could not speak specifically about Groupon’s future plans for Hyperpublic. But he noted that figuring out how local markets work and using public information from the social Web to understand consumer habits and interests is becoming a hot area for many companies. It’s not hard to imagine that Hyperpublic would be able to help Groupon better target subscribers in some of its coming products, including Groupon Now, a service that lets users see deals happening in real time, based on their location. It’s also an area that companies like Foursquare, Facebook and Google are widely thought to be eying as they continue to develop their mobile advertising strategies.
“The market that we’re playing in is one that Foursquare and Google are playing in,” Mr. Cooper said. “The better Groupon understands the people and local environment that they are trying to drive traffic to, the better they will do.”
