SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has swallowed restaurant
review service Zagat to ramp up its efforts to connect people with local
businesses.
The founders, husband and wife team Nina and Tim
Zagat, said they will remain co-chairs of the 32-year-old company and
will use Google’s resources and expertise to expand. Zagat currently
offers reviews and ratings on restaurants in more than 100 cities around
the world, based largely on surveys of diners.
Google plans to
integrate New York-based Zagat with its search and mapping products,
where users are already invited to write reviews of businesses and
services.
In a blog post Thursday announcing the purchase, Marissa
Mayer, Google’s vice president of local, maps and location services,
said Zagat "will be a cornerstone of our local offering."
Google and other companies are trying to improve their local offerings as a way to sell more ads to local
merchants.
BGC
Partners analyst Colin Gillis said the purchase was smart. He said
Zagat is like the little brother of Yelp, the leading online review site
and a pioneer in a space that was founded in 2004. Google had attempted
to buy Yelp in 2009, at one point offering about $500 million for the
San Francisco-based company, according to numerous published reports.
Terms
of the acquisition were not disclosed. It is likely a windfall for
Zagat’s founders, who tried to sell the company in 2008.
Google’s stock rose $3.19, or 0.6 percent, to $537.22 in afternoon trading Thursday.
The
purchase may have rattled investors in OpenTable Inc., which provides
ways to make reservations at restaurants along with diners’ reviews.
That company’s stock fell $5.45, or 8.7 percent, to $57.28.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.