Yelp just announced that it has acquired Eat24, the web and app-based online food ordering service that made headlines last year when it “broke up” with Facebook. The deal is valued at $134 million, consisting of stock and cash. The cash part is $75 million.
Yelp says it will use the acquisition to drive daily engagement in the restaurant vertical. It will also expand Eat24’s services to a million U.S. restaurants on the Yelp platform. Eat24 currently provides online delivery and takeout ordering services to 20,000 restaurants in over 1,500 cities. It has a website and app that feature 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support.
“As more food ordering transactions move online, further integrating Eat24 will enhance our user experience with an easy-to-use product and service that allows our large consumer audience to transact directly with businesses,” said Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. “Eat24 has developed a great solution and unique service that has already added great value to the Yelp Platform. With this acquisition, we gain more tools and expertise to help engage our users from discovery through transaction in a key vertical for Yelp.”
“We’re excited to join the Yelp team to deliver an even better consumer experience inside this top destination for finding local businesses,” said Eat24 co-founder and CEO Nadav Sharon. “Yelp has an impressive ability to connect its users directly with businesses. This is an incredible opportunity to further connect with Yelp’s highly engaged users and to expand our reach to even more local businesses on its platform.”
As mentioned, Eat24 made quite a few headlines nearly a year ago, even drawing mainstream news coverage from outlets like CNN. It wrote a very public “break-up” letter to Facebook in response to the decline in organic reach it saw for its Page posts (as many others have seen). The brand had previously had over 70,000 Facebook fans.
The story came at a time when businesses were growing very frustrated with the Facebook issue, and Eat24 became something of a cult hero for small period of time there, but it’s not clear that too many other brands followed suit. Either way, a couple of months later, Eat24 provided an update to say that things were going splendidly without a Facebook Page, and it would seem that it has never looked back. As of today, the Facebook link on Eat24’s website still points to the break-up letter. It will be interesting to see if Yelp requires the brand to embrace the social network again.
Yelp released its quarterly earnings last week, reporting net revenue of $109.9 million. In light of the acquisition, Yelp has increased its revenue outlook for Q1, expecting it to be in the range of $118.5 million to $120.5 million.
Yelp is also beefing up its sales staff.
Image via Eat24