Yelp has just announced that they’ve acquired SeatMe, the startup that set out to battle OpenTable in the restaurant reservation space.
No word yet on the acquisition price, though we’re digging. Update: Looks like they acquired them for $2.2M in cash and 263,000 shares of common stock, pinning the acquisition price at a total up to $12.7M.
SeatMe’s main offering is part web service, part iPad-app. Their web app let restaurant owners easily add an online reservation system to their own site or Facebook page, while the iPad app lets the restaurant’s host/hostess manage their tables on the fly. It also has a few other neat tricks, like texting customers when their table is ready, or flagging return customers’ known allergens and seating preferences.
Yelp says that they’ll be bringing the SeatMe team in to help them build out their own reservation system, expanding their time-slotting offerings from just restaurants and night clubs to things like spas, dentists, and salons. As for what ththis all means for current SeatMe customers? That… goes unmentioned. We’re reaching out to Yelp/SeatMe for clarification there.
We’d actually spotted SeatMe listed as a “potential acquisition” on a random Square hiring page (of all places), so we had a feeling that the company was looking for a buyer. Seems like Yelp won out in the end, though. That same page also listed the crowd-sourced design startup Chirply as a potential acquisition — so keep your eyes peeled, there.
Developing…
