Google is taking on the likes of Yelp with the acquisition of Zagat.
Google has announced that it has acquired respected restaurant ratings guide Zagat. Established in 1979 as a way to gather the ratings and reviews of restaurant diners, it's since expanded to incorporate more than 100 cites and reviews on everything from restaurants and hotels to zoos and golf courses. Now, it all belongs to Google.
Google's Vice President of Local, Maps and Location Services, Marissa Meyer (pictured), announced the major acquisition via the company's official blog yesterday and explained that the business will become an integral part of the search giant's local offerings.
" [...] I'm thrilled that Google has acquired Zagat. Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world."
"[Tim and Nina Zagat] have demonstrated their ability to innovate and to do so with tremendous insight," she contined. "Their surveys may be one of the earliest forms of UGC (user-generated content)—gathering restaurant recommendations from friends, computing and distributing ratings before the Internet as we know it today even existed."
Financial details of the deal have not been released but rumors are flying wildly around the blogosphere. Google tried to buy Yelp for half a billion in 2009 and the price it paid for Zagat is said to be considerably less. The Washington Post points the fact that there was no FTC antitrust review, which is automatically triggered for any deal over $66 million.
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