BuyWithMe Buys Edhance for Loyalty Programs

Boston and New York-based BuyWithMe, a local deals startup, said today it has acquired Edhance, a Cambridge, MA, company that provides card-linked offers and customer loyalty programs (cash back and other deals). Terms of the acquisition weren’t given. Edhance founder Bjorn Larsen is now BuyWithMe’s vice president of loyalty and card-linked offers, so it sounds like the company integration is well under way. It’s an interesting move for BuyWithMe, as it seems everyone and their brother is trying to figure out how to promote loyalty in daily deals—that is, how to get deals customers to return to the stores where they have received discounts.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.