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Article updated as of 10:50 a.m., April 20, 2011.
Where Inc. has been acquired by eBay, the company announced in a post to Twitter this morning. The acquisition is set to close at the end of the current quarter.
An unnamed source generally close to the deal confirmed the acquisition amount at $135 million.
Cathy Chui, a company spokesperson for eBay, would not confirm the dollar figure in a phone interview. She did say, however, the California online retail giant will not be changing anything at Where anytime soon.
“There are no plans to change anything at this time,” Chui said. “Where will remain in the Boston office. We think it is a great opportunity for us to attract talent there. Walt Doyle and his management team are going to remain with the company.”
The Boston location-based mobile service will report to eBay’s PayPal business unit, according to Amanda Pires, senior director, Global Communications, Brand, Experiential Marketing, PayPal in a blog about the purchase. "As a first step, we plan to integrate PayPal into the WHERE mobile app to make it even easier for PayPal customers to take advantage of the local deals."
Chui said that integrating PayPal into paying for local deals is just the first step in the Where integration into eBay.
“We are certainly going to explore Where’s hyperlocal capabilities across all of our eBay properties,” she said. “We have been investing a lot in both local and mobile shopping technology recently. There’s clearly synergies, and we really want to capitalize on those opportunities.”
In December, Where Inc. announced it had secured broad patents on geo-fencing, a technology that allows mobile advertisers to target users by location.
A later tweet from Where quoted Blackhawk Network founder Don Kingsborough, who joined PayPal in March to head up a push into physical stores: "We chose WHERE, we chose you, because of the people," Kingsborough reportedly said.
Executives from Where could not immediately be reached for comment.
Venture investors have put in about $23 million total into Where, according to documents filed with federal regulators. Investors included Grandbanks Capital of Wellesley, Kodiak Venture Partners of Waltham, and Venrock of New York.
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