Digital out-of-home giant Clear Channel Outdoor – a division of iHeart Media – has agreed to a $6.3 billion all-cash buyout. The buyer is a private equity investor group comprised of Mubadala Capital and TWG Global, which will pay CCO common shareholders $2.43 per share – a 71 percent premium.
Yelp today announced a new partnership designed to help home services businesses streamline and automate their inbound lead management. By integrating Housecall Pro, it offers a Job Inbox that’s connected to existing Yelp tools like “Request a Quote” to automatically cultivate leads and save time.
Precisely has launched a new product to help enterprises and multi-location brands better harness location intelligence. Known as StreetPro Discover, it goes deeper than most intelligence databases in unearthing place insights to support targeted marketing, physical expansion, and other purposes.
Beyond Snap’s financial performance in Q4, one thing that jumped out to us during the analyst call was pointed remarks about SMB advertising. In fact, ‘SMB’ or its spelled-out variations were said 11 times. The headline is that SMB ad growth is driving Snap’s top line.
According to SOCi, LLM search queries now average 23 words, which is almost 6x that of traditional search engines. What are tactical takeaways for marketers?
Is Ring a sleeping giant in the world of local media, advertising, and commerce? This is a field that’s led by the Googles, Yelps, and Metas of the world. But does the Amazon-owned Ring have an underutilized set of assets that it could activate any time to compete with these incumbent giants in Local?
As Google continues to flex its muscles with Gemini, the latest search product getting an AI infusion is mapping and navigation. By bringing Gemini to Google Maps, users can have conversational dialogues, a la AI Mode, as they’re out shopping or looking for something to eat in a new neighborhood.
Wix this week launched Harmony, a new vibe coding tool that will help individuals and developers streamline the process of building websites. With lots of moving parts, one of Harmony’s hallmarks is balancing the right dose of AI for automated workflows, while preserving human agency and creativity.
Among the many angles surrounding the AI discussion these days, one that’s seldom discussed is how the technology is integrated into a given organization. We’re not talking about product integrations – though that’s closely related – but rather AI’s integration into company culture.
Search and social visibility powerhouse SOCi has released its 2026 Local Visibility Index. The wide-reaching report reveals tactics that multi-location brands should execute to boost presence in local search and AI engines.
Among all the areas that AI could accelerate and elevate, another one occurred to us recently: All-in-one software offerings. These SMB SaaS platforms span several marketing and operational functions. How does AI align? The technology’s need for federated data compels platforms that process more stuff.
Yelp is expanding its push beyond marketing and deeper into SMB operations with the acquisition of AI-powered lead management platform Hatch. The $300 million deal strengthens Yelp’s ability to help local service businesses convert leads, automate customer communications, and reclaim time through AI-driven workflows—signaling a continued shift toward operational SaaS for SMBs
As AI spending and hype accelerate, Thryv is taking a more disciplined path – a path that’s less about transformation for its own sake and
About a week after ChatGPT announced that it will spin out a healthcare version of ChatGPT, we’ve seen some backlash and ripple effects throughout the healthcare and digital media landscape.
OpenAI has announced what everyone knew was coming at some point: ads in ChatGPT. The company will begin testing ads in the U.S. in its free tier and $8 per month “Go” tier.
Scorpion this week strengthened its marketing muscle. The SMB-focused digital marketing powerhouse has officially joined TikTok’s Marketing Partner Program as a badged Marketing Technology Partner. This will broaden and embolden Scoripion’s already-robust capabilities in SMB marketing.
Google and Apple have announced that Gemini will be the brains behind Apple’s long-awaited and AI-upgraded Siri. It will power Apple’s flagship personal assistant and elevate it to the standards of the AI age.
In November, Vendasta was named one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures™ by Watersone Human Capital. What best practices and lessons led to this accolade. We talked to Vendasta VP of People Operations Jean Parchewsky to find out.
Entitled Slices of Influence: The Pizza Franchise Marketing Playbook, Tiger Pistol’s latest playbook zeroes in on national multi-location pizza brands and how they can excel in AI SEO.
Amidst OpenAI’s master plan to take over the universe, today’s prize goes to whoever had healthcare on their bingo card. OpenAI announced that it will create a forked ChatGPT environment that’s purpose-built for healthcare queries and chatbot-centric conversations. This is the beginning of something bigger.
