Google/Yelp Deal Falls Through
After news last week that Google had planned to buy business review site Yelp for $550 million, reports this morning indicated the deal had gone sour over the weekend.
Sources told TechCrunch that Yelp notified Google over the weekend that the deal was off. They haven't yet publically revealed their motives for the decision, though bloggers are speculating that another corporation came to Yelp with a better offer.
That offer, if it happened at all, would have to had been pretty damn good to convince Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman to scoff at half a billion bucks.
It will be interesting to see if Google tries to get in the local search game with or without Yelp's help. By refusing to join the Google Empire, is Yelp positioned to be in direct competition with some future Google service?
Without Yelp—the leading service in their niche—on their side, entering that fray may be a long, uphill battle for the folks from Mountain View.
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