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MerchantCircle is a San Ramon, California-based start-up company which helps small businesses network with other local businesses and reach local customers through free marketing tools and social media features. On May 26, 2011, Reply! Inc. announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MerchantCircle for $60 million in cash and stock. The transaction was completed in Q3 2011. Reply! founder and CEO, Payam Zamani, is the CEO of the combined companies, called Reply! Inc.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Reply! Acquires MerchantCircle for $60 Million )〕 Former CEO Ben T. Smith, IV co-founded the company in 2005. MerchantCircle was recognized as "Newcomer of the Year" by ''AlwaysOn Media'' in 2007,〔Alwayson, AO Media 100, Winter 2007〕 and was ranked as the fifth-largest local directory site and one of the top 160 sites in the U.S. by a Quantcast study in 2009. The MerchantCircle network signed on its one-millionth member merchant in early 2010,〔(【引用サイトリンク】author=Anthony Ha )〕 and expanded internationally to Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=MerchantCircle Expands Nation’s Largest Local Business Network Internationally )〕 MerchantCircle conducts a quarterly Merchant Confidence Index survey, the findings of which have been cited in The Financial Times, Forbes, The New York Times and USA Today, among others. ==History== MerchantCircle was founded in 2005, and announced in June 2006.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Los Altos Startup Takes Aim at Yellow Pages )〕 It was named "Newcomer of the Year" by AlwaysOn Media〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Media Newcomer of the year )〕 in 2007. MerchantCircle received just over $4 million in early stage funding from venture capital firms Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, and Steamboat Ventures. In November 2007, the company received an additional investment of $10 million from IAC, Square 1 Bank, and all three previous investors.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=MerchantCircle takes 10 million series b )〕 Ron Conway was also an early investor. In 2010, MerchantCircle acquired online meeting scheduler TimeBridge to enable merchants and consumers to schedule appointments and calls online. That same year, the company also took over management of RSS feed company Bloglines, through which it plans to deliver local and industry-specific targeted content to member merchants and local deals and information to Bloglines account holders. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「MerchantCircle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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