LivingSocial acquires BuyYourFriendADrink

Social recommendation site, LivingSocial acquires BuyYourFriendADrink to get an in, in bev industry

Cheers.
LivingSocial, a site which allows users to review and share their favorite things, has take taken another leap into the alcohol advertising industry by acquiring BuyYourFriendADrink.com.  

New York based, BuyYourFriendADrink, is an e-commerce service which allows users to purchase electronic or hard copy gift certificates their friends can redeem at bars in the BYFAD network.  Currently, BYFAD’s network is still small, but as of now, it claims its reach is 275 bars across the US.  

This isn’t LivingSocial’s first venture into the alcohol industry.  One of the reasons I enjoyed the site was, along with its standard recommendation features, like reviewing and discovering albums, books, tv shows, and movies- it also has a beer section.

Currently, LivingSocial has a 20 million people userbase and has integrated Facebook and MySpace applications into its services.  With this acquisition, LivingSocial hopes to combine BYFAD’s beverage industry connections to provide marketing campaigns for beer and wine brands.  Stephen Cohn, CEO of BYFAD said, “brand advertisers can now reach users who have indicated that they like a specific product, brand or category, and drive sampling in a completely trackable and viral manner."

The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, although, back in July of 2008, LivingSocial raised $5 Million in Series A funding from Grotech Ventures, and hasn’t raised money since.  I'd say its safe to assume the transaction wasn’t any amount near one of the recent Cisco acquisitions.