SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Groupon Inc lost a quarter of its market value on Wednesday after the company revealed it began to take a smaller cut of revenue on daily deals during the holidays, sacrificing revenue and profits to attract and keep merchants.

The cut in its “take rate”, which some analysts had said was needed to revive flagging interest among merchants in its Internet offers, was a blow to fourth-quarter results. And a sharper-than-expected post-holiday slowdown in its new e-commerce business contributed to a disappointing first-quarter sales forecast.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Groupon Inc lost almost a quarter of its market value on Wednesday after the company began to take a smaller cut of revenue on daily deals, sacrificing revenue and profits to attract and keep merchants.

“This raises questions about how these guys are going to be able to scale the business,” said Tom White, an analyst at Macquarie. “The forecast is underwhelming.”

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Max Levchin, co-founder of online payment giant PayPal, launched a rival business on Tuesday called Affirm that will compete in the crowded but fast-growing mobile payments business.

Affirm’s technology helps shoppers complete online purchases more quickly and easily when they are using smart phones and other mobile devices, according to the firm’s website.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 22 (Reuters) – LivingSocial was forced to
make large concessions to persuade some of its biggest investors
to plow another $110 million into the second-largest daily-deal
company, analysts and investors said on Friday.

Analysts say those investors secured advantageous terms
potentially at the expense of LivingSocial’s other backers. The
nature of those terms shed new light on an investment that Chief
Executive Tim O’Shaughnessy declared on Wednesday “a tremendous
vote of confidence in our business.”

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – PayPal launched a European version of its PayPal Here mobile payments service for small merchants on Thursday as the online payments division of eBay Inc steps up competition with ivals, including Square Inc.

PayPal unveiled a new device, about the size of a smartphone, that allows small merchants to accept credit and debit cards under a more-stringent and complex system in Europe known as Chip and PIN.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – LivingSocial, the second-largest daily deal company, raised $110 million in a new round of financing from many of its existing investors, Chief Executive Officer Tim O’Shaughnessy wrote in a memo to employees on Wednesday.

“This investment is a tremendous vote of confidence in our business from the people who know us best, our current board members and investors,” the memo said.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc shares climbed more than 4 percent on Tuesday after an analyst note fueled optimism about the company’s Kindle e-book business.

The e-book market is a lot bigger than previously thought, and owners of Kindle e-readers and tablets are reading more e-books, Morgan Stanley’s Scott Devitt, a leading Internet and e-commerce analyst, told investors in the research note.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Seamless will generate more than $100 million in revenue this year as the online food ordering service expands in new cities and benefits from a surge in mobile users, Chief Executive Jonathan Zabusky said on Tuesday.

Seamless generated $85 million in revenue last year as its consumer business, its largest, grew 60 percent.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc
said on Friday that it struck an exclusive deal to distribute
seasons of the hit TV show “Downton Abbey” to members of its
subscription-based video streaming service.

Beginning June 18, Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service will
be the exclusive subscription service for streaming Season 3 of
“Downton Abbey,” as part of a new content licensing agreement
with PBS Distribution, a unit of The Public Broadcasting
Service.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – After a spending spree in recent years pushed Amazon.com Inc’s(AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research) net results into the loss column, investors are betting that the company is tightening the purse strings and focusing on delivering a solid profit.

Investors have watched with growing consternation since 2010, as the world’s biggest online retailer spent billions erecting warehouses, amassing computer servers, buying video content and manufacturing tablets. Analysts say Amazon is emerging from that supercharged investment phase just as growth of its core retail business slows.