With Yelp Reportedly considering Sale, stock Pops 25%

Yelp is taking a look right into a sale, The Wall street Journal mentioned Thursday.

The Journal estimates a deal for the reviews platform would doubtless be more than $3.5 billion; the company’s market capitalization is round $2.9 billion. Citing people with data of the matter, the Journal‘s document signifies Yelp has been in talks with funding bankers and potential buyers—although a deal isn’t but on the table, and likewise “it can be imaginable Yelp will decide against a sale.”

This isn’t the primary time the corporate has been courted: back in 2009, Yelp grew to become down an acquisition offer from Google reportedly within the range of $500 million. CEO Jeremy Stoppelman explained the reason behind the move to the related Press final 12 months:

“It was an emotional choice. Yelp is my baby, so i wanted it to be in a place where it was going to thrive. as it became more of an auction process where it felt like there was blood in the water and the sharks were attacking, it simply felt like it wasn’t going to prove with Yelp in a great spot.”

turns out even Steve Jobs had a hand in swaying Stoppelman faraway from Google: “He felt that Yelp was a great company and would not be a perfect firm if it fell in the hands of Google.”

The report follows information remaining month that Yelp rival Foursquare was in negotiations with Yahoo for a sale priced round $900 million. The rumors fizzled when sources with reference to each companies denied the claims, but it served as a sign that tech giants are nonetheless enthusiastic about get entry to to distinctive client knowledge.

in the hours following the Yelp information, the corporate’s inventory in short jumped a whopping 25%, though it continues to fluctuate.