Yelp's CEO Puts Pause on Sale of Company

The company is worth over $3 billion.

Restaurant (and retail) review site Yelp may not put itself up for sale after all. In May, news broke that the site's executives were exploring a sale and it had plans to meet with investment bankers and potential buyers. However, according to Bloomberg, "people with knowledge of the matter" say that co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has "temporarily decided not to pursue a sale" of the company. The sources add that the company "may pursue a deal again" if Stoppelman changes his mind. A Yelp spokesperson tells Bloomberg that the company does not comment on speculation and rumors.

Yelp is currently valued around $3.1 billion, though some estimate it could be as high as $3.5 billion. There are a number of potential buyers and Bloomberg writes that a company that could help Yelp "connect to reviewers to making purchases" could convince Stoppelman and his team to sell.

One thing is pretty much guaranteed, however, if Yelp does proceed with a sale: The list of potential buyers will not include Google. The search engine tried to acquire Yelp in 2009 for $500 million but failed. Ever since then the relationship between the two companies has been rocky. Earlier this week, Yelp released a study that alleges Google manipulates it search results.

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