After acquiring AdMob for $750 million, and running on the LaLa acquisition recently, rumor mills are spinning the news about Google acquiring Yelp for as much as $500 million. Looks like Google is riding high on copious shopping spree. However, the final settlement seems a long distance from now as nothing much has been done yet except for having past the term sheet stage.

It definitely is not an easy process for a company to overtake another company and a lot of formalities are bound to come into the scene. On the contrary, it is rather surprising to learn that a company like Yelp, which is relatively, seems to be doing well at present should sell themselves to another company.

Yelp was founded in the year 2004 and their revenues for 2009 have been calculated approximately at around $30 million. They are expected to make around $50 million in 2010. Besides, if words are to be believed, Yelp raised venture capital in early 2008 from DAG at a whopping $200 million pre-money valuation. Apparently, they raised a total of $31 million over four venture rounds. So, it is rather difficult to comprehend as to why Yelp would like to sell themselves to Google.

On the other hand, it is conspicuously seen that Google wants to acquire Yelp for the latter’s good market value. Good has also been encouraging local businesses to put Google-branded stickers in store windows; ad added their own ratings summaries to business profiles as well. Well, time will let us know if Google will indeed acquire Yelp.

Via: WashingtonPost