• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 16, 2012

Navigation services provider TeleNav on Tuesday announced acquiring mobile advertising firm Local Merchant Services, d.b.a. ThinkNear, for $22.5 million, including $18.5 million in cash. TeleNav said it would combine ThinkNear’s targeting technology with its existing Drive-To-Advertising platform to create a new solution called Scout Advertising.

TeleNav says its Drive-to-Advertising system reaches 34 million customers and offers advertisers with the only platform that captures the "drive-to" rat--the number of users who viewed an ad and then clicked on it to drive to the advertiser's business location. The addition of the ThinkNear technology will help businesses better reach the right customers to drive more business. Read more here.