Talks about Loopt acquisition
Altman discusses the $43.4 million cash buyout by Green Dot, which includes $9.8 million set aside in retention payments for key Loopt employees. Loopt’s services will be shut down and its Silicon Valley team will develop mobile services for the payments provider. Altman:
Many of the companies in the mobile location space are trying to figure out different ways to tie what they’re doing to commerce … We’ve all realized the critical piece is how you tie in commerce and payments.
Where 2.0 interview
Altman tells O’Reilly Media online managing editor Mac Slocum that Loopt is shifting from its focus on connecting people socially:
A big change over the last year has been an expansion of that to connect people to the places around them as well
SXSW interview
Altman tells CrunchGear about Loopt’s plans, saying the company is aiming to focus on data over the coming year:
[…] we’ve really been focused more and more on [Facebook] Places, this hyper-specific data layer
He says the deals that work best for the company are things like free stuff being given away on a street corner for a limited time, or 50% off a restaurant for one night only:
The things that work the best are what we call flash deals, these are very, very time-limited, high-value, and they are pushed to the user.
