Yelp Turns Down Half-Billion Dollar Buyout Deal from Google

Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 7:33 am

What was Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, thinking when he turned his back on a half-billion dollar acquisition of his company to Google? That's the question everyone is asking, but no one seems to have an answer for.

Just before the weekend, the acquisition appeared to be a done deal. The two companies had come to terms on a price in the vicinity of $550 million plus earnouts, leaving only the final details to be hammered out. And then something went wrong. Citing multiple anonymous sources, TechCrunch says that Stoppleman and company notified Google over the weekend that Yelp would remain independent.

As far as we know, there's no other company looking to acquire Yelp who could have made a bigger offer, and for $550 million, it's hard to believe that Yelp developed a case of cold feet. Instead, TechCrunch surmises that Apple, Microsoft, or some other industry bigwig came forward with a strategic deal tantalizing enough that Stoppleman would walk away from such a lucrative buyout offer.

Stay tuned.