True profitability will come only if consumers engage. What I see as quite possible though is RetailMeNot showing an interest in buying them, as it fits it perfectly with their business model. And, they have a lot of cash (over $200 million). Spindle, which owns Yowza is trying to expand the beacons into the general community, which has promise--maybe even more than malls IMO because of the mobility/impulse factor and beacons not draining batteries on mobile devices like gps satellite does. We see that Mobiquity is doing the same with the college campus approach and it would not surprise me if they are also eying any business as a potential beacon user, in hopes of creating an entire local business ecosystem for savings and consumer engagement.
Another development in the field is LocalSaver, owned by Datasphere, teaming up with Valpak in the last few months, as well as with 8coupons.com. Valpak and Moneymailer are the main local direct mail biz coupon companies and the rest are individually owned. LocalSaver is the main online for local biz. Partnerships here will definitely be interested in beacon technology.
I know this because my own biz is right smack in the middle of all of this stuff.
Despite my doubts about mall adoption profitability, I've been buying MOBQ due to the likelihood of an acquisition over the next year or so at a much higher price, combined with the exciting stuff they have just started to roll out.
