Monday, October 25, 2010

Local.com Drops LEC Billing Acquisitions

Irvine-based Local.com, the online operator of local search advertising sites, said today that it has suspended its acquisition of LEC-billed subscribers, and will focus on providing its own, credit-card local business product, Exact Match. The firm had recently been acquiring small business customers being served by LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) billing, where customers were billed for operating their web sites through their phone bill. Local.com said it will instead focus on traditional local business products, charged at $1795.00 down and $495 per month for customers who want the firm to develop keyword-based local web sites. The company also explained it will make its platform available to yellow pages and regional media publishers. Local.com claimed the switch came after success of its OCTANE360 platform, however, LEC billing companies have also been facing scrutiny from the FTC and others for billing users for services they did not want or did not want. Local.com has said, earlier this year in a earnings call, that it seen lots of customer churn in its LEC billing accounts and has been looking to convert them to standard credit cards.

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