IYP publisher Idearc has invested in AmericanTowns, a collection of local city guides that aggregates content from various sources about local businesses, events, news and other resources. Idearc has also purchased the LocalSearch.com domain from AmericanTowns. Combined, the deal is worth $3.3 million.
Idearc will work with AmericanTowns to develop hyper-local content for its own local search offerings, and will take an equity interest and board seat at the start-up.
AmericanTowns.com will use proceeds from this transaction to continue growing its database, to develop new tools for community groups, and to add more user-generated content tools for its local sites.