Corporate social media management company Hearsay Social has raised $18 million. The company launched this past February. Hearsay provides franchise companies and businesses with local chapters the ability to monitor social media across the whole organization.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has a major interest in competing directly with Groupon. After Groupon refused Google’s $6 billion offer, Google realized that they cannot just buy their way into the local deals market. Google now has a new feature in the Google Shopper app [iTunes link] where mobile users can find local deals.

Google has acquired more than a thousand patents from IBM, for an undisclosed sum of money. CNET reports that the patents cover things like web searching, memory and microprocessing chips, servers, routers and probably much more. Google recently lost a bid for 6,000 Nortel patents to a group of companies including Apple, Microsoft and RIM. A Google representative explained to CNET that “like many tech companies, at times we’ll acquire patents that are relevant to our business needs.”

On Wednesday morning Amazon (AMZN) passed the $100 billion market cap mark. The company’s shares reached an all-time high at 227.20 and have been hovering above 220 in the days since. [TechCrunch]

Google has joined as a partner in the Portland Incubator Experiment to provide mentors to assist the PIE startups. Other companies involved with PIE include Coca-Cola, Target and Nike, dedicating their resources to select startups coming out of an incubator that already has an impressive list of successes. PIE provides money, office space and mentors to startups like BankSimple and COLOURlovers. [TechCrunch]

As a kid in the 90s I was very excited that the White House website had an option for people to email the Clintons’ cat Socks. As a voter in 2011, I’m pleased to see the Obama administration keeping up with technology and using social networking as a productive way for voters and the government to interact. Today President Obama tweeted, “The time for putting party first is over. If you want to see a bipartisan #compromise, let Congress know. Call. Email. Tweet. —BO.” A few minutes later the President’s Twitter team added, “You heard the President. So here’s what we’re doing: throughout the day we’ll post the Twitter handles of GOP lawmakers in each state.” The team has already provided the handles of reps from Alabama, Alaska and Arkansas.

Verizon Wireless has approved a $10 billion payout to Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodaphone Group Plc. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the payment will be distributed between the two based on their ownership stakes in the company, which is 55% and 45%, respectively. Verizon Wireless hasn’t paid dividends to its owners in a few years, as the company has been focusing its expenditures on paying down debt.

Apple, with a cash reserve of more than $75 billion, now has more money than the US government, which currently has an operating balance of about $73 billion. What happens when a company has more money than the government? Probably nothing, other than the government feeling a little ashamed of itself. [The Atlantic]