Yelp Backs Out of Google Acquisition

Updated June 11, 2021

Google is aquiring a portion of the service “Yelp” but the company backed out, here are the details of what we know so far.

It’s not every day a small company CEO walks away from $550 million dollars, but over the weekend Jeremy Stoppleman did just that. Google had been in negotiations with Yelp to acquire the review site, and the deal was nearly ready for signature before the deal soured. With this going sideways, Google won’t gain the acquisition of the massive database of businesses and reviews that would have significantly improved Google’s new Favorite Places system.

Why did Yelp say no to Google?

There are several possibilities, but we won’t know for sure until Yelp releases a statement. While Yelp is not yet disclosing any information, here are a few of the best ideas floating around the net.

“Yelp investors may be forbidding a Google acquisition”
“Another company (Microsoft, Apple, etc.) may have put in a higher bid or partnership”
“Yelp just started the deal for the publicity and never actually planned on selling”
“Stoppleman is afraid of acquisition after what happened with Paypal”
“Google may have planned to dissolve Yelp and integrate its data with Google Favorite Places”
“Maybe it’s because Google isn’t good for kids (see image below)”

Yelp Sticking Around

Regardless, this means Yelp will be sticking around for a while which I think is good news personally. Yelp is a great review site for everything local, from restaurants and hotels to nightclubs and even religious organizations. Check it out @ https://www.yelp.com/