Yelp turned down a $550 million-plus-earnouts acquisition offer from Google because Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman is hot to try the IPO market, a source close to the company tells us.
Our first reaction to this news was disbelief.
Why would Yelp's investors allow Jeremy to turn down a $550 million deal when the company's revenues are only in the tens of millions of dollars?
But our source tells us investors are the ones most opposed to selling.
Separately, we've also heard Microsoft took Yelp's temperature and found it cold.
Heads up! A Google deal could still happen. Yelp and its investors may be playing hard to get hoping to drive Google's price yet higher. Certainly, we've all seen that the company is willing to shell out big cash when it needs to. (See: $750 million for AdMob.)
Don't miss: Yelp's Rejection Of Google Heralds A Massive IPO Boom
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment. 
CEO Maria Thomas is leaving the company. She will be replaced by co-founder and ex-CEO Rob Kalin.
In a statement on the company's website Thomas said, "Etsy is a now profitable company; in the last two years, revenue has increased seven-fold. In the past month alone, around 11 million visitors have stopped in to be inspired, to shop, and to connect."
Etsy's 2009 gross merchandise sales reached $130 million at the end of October -- up from $88 million over all of 2008 (and up from $26 million in 2007).
Thomas joined the company in April 2008 as COO. She was promoted to CEO in July 2008. There's no word on where she's headed next.
Bonus: Take a look at Etsy's super cool Brooklyn HQ
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
Yelp may have just turned down a half-billion dollar takeover offer from Google. Zynga does a crazy-big $180m funding. Not long ago, Twitter took another $100-million in financing, and now we learn it’s … profitable. In the immortal words of Walter Sobchak, has the whole world – or least every young and fast-growing technology company -- gone crazy?
Maybe, but there could also be something important going on. It’s been so long since it last happened that most people will have forgotten, but there is often a reason why companies start doing strange things, like taking lots of money when they don’t need it, and like turning down appealing acquisitions. The reason? This thing called an “initial public offering” (IPO).
Keep reading at Infectious Greed >
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
We’ve gathered more information on a recent Facebook common stock purchase by DST. The original share buyback was oversubscribed at a $14.77 per share price (roughly $6.5 billion valuation). This most recent sales were done at $25/share, which values Facebook at roughly $11 billion.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
No one questions whether sharing news or photos with friends and family is a fad, and when people get together to socialize, they often play games -- from bridge to charades to Trivial Pursuit. As one of the largest social gathering spots on the Web, Facebook is no different. Here are five reasons Facebook games are not a fad.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
A year and a half after Apple launched its iPhone App Store, there are over 100,000 apps available, the Store has already seen more than 2 billion total downloads, and the App Store is now being discussed as Apple's most important invention ever.
Those staggering numbers could inspire even the least tech-savvy business owner to hop on the iPhone-app-bandwagon.
Hundreds of small firms and freelancers are now specializing in building apps specifically for the iPhone. These developers take your vision, combine it with their knowledge of Apple's platform, and come up with a program that should create a compelling and interactive experience for your clients.
Want to get in on the action? We consulted a few developers to find out how to ensure that your app dev experience goes smoothly, what you should expect to spend, and what you should know before going into the process.
Click here to see how to hire a great iPhone app developer >
Photo: Apple
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
We asked around and figured out how that finally happened.
To our delight the reason is so simple, we can explain it in 25 words:
- Facebook's scale makes a Facebook Page the best landing page for brands advertising on the Internet.
- Facebook ads are the best at driving traffic to Facebook Pages.
OK, you caught us. That was 27 words.
Bonus analysis: The reason Google wanted to buy Yelp for $550 million is very similar.
- A Yelp page is the best place for a small businesses to make its home on the Internet. This is because a Yelp Page appears objective, but Yelp allows the small business choose a review to feature at the top of the page.
- Google search ads would be very good at driving traffic to Yelp Pages.
So, what is it like working at Facebook?
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
Two sources familiar with company's finances say it received $25 million for its search deals with Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT). Google paid $15 million, and Microsoft paid $10 million.
That's enough for Twitter to earn a small profit this year.
Ante also reports Twitter is cutting costs by negotiating better deals with telecoms. It used to pay a hefty sum to send Tweets as texts. It doesn't anymore.
While the small profit is welcome news for Twitter, it appears to be almost incidental. It's certainly not the reason investors valued the company at $1 billion earlier this year. Twitter could hire a few more employees and wipe out the profit. Indeed, it says its looking at hiring talent through acquisition.
Next year, Twitter will focus on building a long-term, sustainable, business plan. Part of that will include advertising.
Twitter also needs to make sure its user base continues to grow. Its explosive growth slowed down as the year went along.
See Also: Twitter's Path to $1 Billion
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
Yelp is rejecting Google's $500 million plus offer for the company, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch reports.
According to Arrington, the deal was just about done, but something happened that made Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman change his mind.
He told Google (GOOG) the deal was off over the weekend.
There are no details for now on what might have changed his mind.
Maybe Microsoft or Yahoo offered a better deal. Maybe Yelp decided it was worth more. Or maybe it just decided it was better off on its own.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 21st, 2009. Comment.
As far as we can tell, CEO Tim Armstrong's plan to turn AOL into a next generation media company involves three editorial groups:
- A massive group of 10,000+ freelancers who are assigned stories through Seed.com.
- A mix of fulltime bloggers and high-profile old media types who will assign those stories and write for 100+ branded blogs.
- Hundreds of "Patch" editors who will run local news blogs to keep tabs on small suburban communities.
It's this last group of Patch editors that interests many of us the most. Two reasons:
- These are those journalists who, by themselves, will try to replace the role newspapers played in local communties.
- We're all excited to see how AOL will earn enough money through local advertising to actually pay fulltime journalists.
AOL is hungrily hiring more Patch editors every day. But right now, there are just 20. They are mostly fresh-faced recent college graduates with little or no experience. A few are long-time newspaper vets.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 18th, 2009. Comment.
I made $37.50 at Demand Studios in November. That money went directly into my Paypal account, on time, with no billing hassles. But it probably took me about six hours of filling out a profile, studying a style guide and learning how to navigate the system. So my hourly pay was about $6, for a writer new to the system.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 18th, 2009. Comment.
Nicholas Carlson, Senior Editor, The Business Insider
Google Wants To Buy Yelp For $500 Million... But Why?
- Yelp's local search is adjacent to Google's business
- Local businesses want to advertise on web but have no place to drive traffic to. Yelp Pages solve that problem.
- Google needs to diversify its local search content and provide more than Google Maps.
- Yelp is established brand amongst local searchers and merchants.
- Yelp has killer apps on mobile web
- Culturally, Google and Yelp should work well together
Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei
More Video: TBI Calendar Click HERE >
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Filed under Silicon Valley Startups by on Dec 18th, 2009. Comment.
Recent Comments