The Priceline Group has quite the appetite for acquisitions. Two days after buying Seattle hotel marketing startup Buuteeq, the Norwalk, Conn.-based travel giant announced that it has entered into a deal to buy OpenTable for $103 per share in an all cash deal valued at $2.6 billion.
Priceline’s Darren Huston called OpenTable a great match.
“They provide us with a natural extension into restaurant marketing services and a wonderful and highly-valued booking experience for our global customers,” said Huston in a release. “We look forward to helping the OpenTable team accelerate their global expansion, increase the value offered to their restaurant partners, and enhance the end-to-end experience for our collective customers across desktop and mobile devices.”
OpenTable is a juggernaut in the online restaurant reservation arena, with 15 million diners per month using its service at more than 31,000 restaurants. To date, it has helped more than 125 million restaurant goers grab a seat at a restaurant. It successfully fended off competition from Seattle-based Urbanspoon, ultimately resulting in the acquisition by OpenTable of the Rezbook restaurant reservation business last year.
The boards of both companies have approved the deal, and the transaction is expected to close later this year. OpenTable will remain at its San Francisco office, and will run as an independent business.
Priceline, which also owns Booking.com and Kayak, now has a market value of $63 billion.
