Apple partner OpenTable to be acquired by Priceline for $2.6 billion

PricelineNegotiator

Priceline has announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire online restaurant reservation service and Apple content partner OpenTable. The travel site will be doling out $103 per share in the all cash transaction, which is said to be worth $2.6 billion.

For those unfamiliar with it, OpenTable facilitates restaurant reservations through its website and mobile apps. Apple has long been a proponent of the service, which it reaffirmed in 2012 by integrating it into its digital assistant Siri, as part of the year’s iOS 6 update

From the press release:

“OpenTable is a great match for The Priceline Group.  They provide us with a natural extension into restaurant marketing services and a wonderful and highly-valued booking experience for our global customers,” said Darren Huston, President & CEO of The Priceline Group.  “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.”

“The Priceline Group is a leader in e-commerce innovation with global expertise in online marketing and digital customer conversion across devices, and they have an exceptional track record of customer service in dozens of languages around the world,” said Matt Roberts, CEO of OpenTable. “We couldn’t be more excited to join a group of brands leading in their space, and we look forward to the next chapter of our own journey as we continue to enhance the dining experience for our customers worldwide.”

The Board of Directors for both The Priceline Group and OpenTable have unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the 3rd quarter of this year. This, of course, is subject to the customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

Should the deal go through, OpenTable will continue to be headquartered in San Francisco and will operate as an independent business led by its current management team. So it sounds like Siri functionality, which you can learn more about here, should remain intact.

open table siri

Founded in 1998, OpenTable is the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations. It’s responsible for seating more than 15 million diners per month, across more than 31,000 restaurants, and has seated more than 125 million diners via mobile solutions since 2008.