Restaurant booking service OpenTable has been growing steadily over the past few years, so it's no surprise that an acquisition is on the horizon. Priceline Group, the company behind the hugely successful travel-booking site Priceline.com, has made plans to buy the site for $2.6 billion in cash, news of which sent both companies' stocks soaring.
It's unclear how exactly Priceline will leverage OpenTable's restaurant reservation service, but the company said in a press release that it intends to hasten OpenTable's "global expansion." The site currently has deals with more than 31,000 restaurants, with whom it books a reported 15 million customers per month. In 2013, it made $33.4 million in profit on revenues of $190 million.
Priceline already offers hotel bookings and car rentals and along with flights, so adding a restaurant booking service could easily help it grow its core business. The takeover is expected to be completed in the next few months.
[via CNET]
