To support its Patch network of local news blogs, AOL is in the process of acquiring hyper-local news aggregator Outside.In, Business Insider reports. No official word on the deal terms, but sources tell BI that AOL is paying less than $10 million for the start-up. BI, which first reported deal talks earlier this year, notes: "Based on AOL's properties, it makes sense that Outside.in's technology (and maybe a few employees) will be integrated into Patch." Outside.In was founded in 2006 by author Steven Johnson, and has since received investment from the likes of Union Square Ventures, Marc Andreessen, …

Deal-a-day leader Groupon has been hit with a potential class action lawsuit, which claim that it issues coupons with illegal expiration dates. As The Chicago Sun-Times reports, an unhappy customer claims he purchased a gift certificate through Groupon with an illegally deceptive expiration date, according to a suit filed in U.S. District Court. "Groupon and the retail partners state the gift certificates expire within months," reports SunTimes.com. "The suit claims the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act prohibits the sale of gift certificates with expiration dates of less than five years." Whether the lawsuit could threaten Groupon's …

Vurve -- a start-up that promises small businesses "advertising on autopilot" -- just raised $4.5 million in a Series A round led by Spark Capital, along with Dave McClure's 500 Startups and True Ventures. "While many online platforms offer self-service tools that businesses can use to manage their own campaigns, the legwork involved with running these ... can be daunting," explains TechCrunch. Vurve "automates many of the most time-intensive aspects of running marketing online." To streamline its offering even further, the start-up has been working with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, which has integrated Vurve directly into its administrator …

Under any circumstances, might AOL's acquisition of Huffington Post not result in additional layoffs? No, says AOL head Tim Armstrong. "There will be job changes," Armstrong said at a conference this week as reported by ZDNet. "There's no way around it, but we'll do it thoughtfully." As ZDNet notes, AOL has said that it plans to get $20 million in savings out of the Huffington Post deal, so layoffs were expected. Still, Armstrong says he's sensitive about the business of firing staff and tries to be open and transparent about any changes because he knows there have been …

The Justice Department is reportedly investigating whether a group representing some top tech firms, including Microsoft and Apple, is trying to stifle a Google-backed free alternative technology for delivering online video. Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that the Justice Department has launched a formal antitrust probe into MPEG LA and its members, and whether they're trying to cripple an alternative format called VP8 that Google released last year -- "by creating legal uncertainty over whether users might violate patents by employing that technology." As The Journal explains, video-streaming services like Netflix and Google's YouTube currently pay …

Hinting at the increasing commercial might of handheld devices, mobile payments startup Square says it's now processing over $1 million in payments per day. As TechCrunch notes, Square was processing a few million in mobile transactions per week as of last fall. At this rate, however, Square COO Keith Rabois is expecting the company to process $40 million in transactions in the first quarter of the year. Helping the cause are the 100,000 merchants currently signing up to Square per month -- compared to 30,000 monthly sign-ups last fall. "Square has no doubt created a foothold amongst small businesses, …

It's fair to call CBS an online pioneer because of its free, cross-channel coverage of the annual March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament. Keeping with that theme, CBS -- along with Time Warner's Turner, which is sharing broadcast and digital rights of the tournament this year -- plan to streams the games for free to all iPhone and iPad users. Why has CBS historically been so willing to give away March Madness, while other networks closely guard their sports coverage? Quite simply, "A big chunk of the tournament occurs during weekday work hours, so giving people the opportunity …

Over the next four years, spending on domestic "daily deals" could approach $4 billion, according to new estimates from BIA/Kelsey. That's up from a measly $873 million in 2010. "In its most optimistic scenario, U.S. revenues could hit as much as $6.1 billion in 2015," AllThingsD's eMoney blog notes. For it's part, eMoney calls the $4 billion projection "conservative given some of the official figures known about the largest players in the space." In an internal memo, for instance, Groupon recently revealed that it saw its revenue surge to $760 million last year from $33 million in 2009 …

Microsoft is so mad about losing its global ad sales head Carolyn Everson to Facebook, it's considering taking legal action, BoomTown reports. "Lawyer at both companies have been in back-and-forth talks in recent days after the hiring," writes BoomTown's Kara Swisher. Most likely, Everson will be barred from using any strategic information she learned at the company, as well as from contacting certain ad clients on behalf of Facebook for a certain period of time. Still, "While a legal action to stop her from actually taking the position is the most serious option, it is certainly not without …

Despite reports to the contrary, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says there are no plans to go public, be acquired, or even raise additional capital in the foreseeable future. Reports have been circulating around the Web that JPMorgan Chase was in talks to buy 10% of Twitter for $450 million, which would have valued the top microblogging service at $4.5 billion. "(The report is) made up," Stone told Reuters at a conference in Seoul on Thursday. Regarding an IPO, Stone added: "We are not even discussing it internally. It's too far off." What about selling out? Not anytime …