Google, which has been on a buying spree for the past year, is in advanced talks to purchase Yelp for at least $500 million.
This is a smart move for Google in many ways. It had tried to usurp the world of local reviews earlier this year with its Place Pages– mini-sites that would show up at the front of search results pages and provide you with everything from the establishment’s address, phone number, location via Google Map, and user reviews. It would appear that, rather than reinvent the wheel, Mountain View has decided to pick up Yelp while the price is still relatively low. Doing so allows Google’s engineering team to focus on other areas; this price tag is largely about the value of Yelp’s user content.
This move by Google definitely serves as a shot across the bow to Microsoft and (to a lesser extent) IAC, whose CitySearch directory has been dying on the vine for the past seven years. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft responds.
Yelp has raised about $30 million across its four rounds of venture capital, and TechCrunch estimates the company’s value at $200 million.
Congrats to everyone at Yelp!
Google In Discussions To Acquire Yelp For A Half Billion Dollars Or More.
