By Brian Kovalesky, StartUp Beat Editor,

This was a news week dominated by global economic news and of the worldwide growth of the Occupy movement. But while things continue to look dour on the economic front, the tech sector saw another vigorous week of funding and acquisitions announcements, mixed with negative news about Groupon’s pending IPO and serious layoffs at fellow deals site BuyWithMe. The sector increasing looks like a bad deal (sorry, I had to go there).

Speaking of Groupon, StartUp Beat this week featured a guest column about the decline of the daily deals juggernaut by David Galvan, president of online appointment platform Schedulicity. We also featured Q&As with social games startup Crowdpark, restaurant technology provider Ordr.in, and a Featured Startup Pitch from Internet security startup KnowBe4.