Acquisition Puts Screamin Daily Deals Into Growth Mode

—soon to be named Spreebird—will be able to keep its Southern California focus under a $12.5-million acquisition by Local.com.

The new, shorter name will give the company, founded in San Juan Capistrano, a national presence. Although the Internet deal company sells in West Chicago and Salt Lake City under special licensing agreements, its main market is the Los Angeles area.

While it tries to attract a larger audience, the goal will be to become one of "the top guys in the area," said co-founder Benson Kane. 

"Going national requires a lot of money. Groupon and Living Social  are well over hundreds of millions of dollars in investments ... to penetrate the market properly ... does require a lot of money," he said. "So we made a decision to put all of our resources in an area where we knew we could manage it."

Under the , Local.com will buy Screamin Media Group Inc. for $12.5 million in cash, stocks and debt. The decision to grow under a corporate, parent company was made because Screamin executives feared that there might not be room to grow under a national company that may already own a successful daily deal company.

"With Local, we get to stay on and grow the company," Kane said.

According to Business Insider, there are more than 350 daily deal sites in the country. And, in the past six months, they've attracted more than $1.69 billion in venture capital and other investments.

"This is expected to grow to $1.9 billion in 2011 and to a further $4.5 billion by 2015," the July 15 article states.

The 60 Screamin employees are packing up their office on Rancho Viejo Road to relocate July 22 to Irvine, where Local.com is headquartered. Screamin occupies the second floor of a suite in a business park. On Friday, some employees scurried from room to room wearing no shoes, and others in jeans and sandals.

"It's a very casual atmosphere," said Kane. "There's a start-up culture that takes precedent. You want everyone to feel comfortable, to feel safe."

That culture will likely change a bit in the coming weeks as Screamin Daily folds into Spreebird, an existing daily-deals service of Local.com. All of the employees will retain their jobs.

"They have a more corporate philosophy, but the nice thing is, they've dictated to us, 'Hey, you've gotta keep your culture; you've grown a business well, so we wanna keep that.'"

The trade-off is that the employees will now feel that sense of security that's reassuring in an environment where uncertainty and change are constant.

Benson and his two co-founders, formerly president, CEO and COO, will become Spreebird’s vice presidents of sales and marketing, product and operations, respectively. 

"There will be pressure, like there always was, but it's how you address that pressure," he said. "There's a sense of excitement that we're now going into growth mode."