OpenTable Takeover At Massive Premium

2014 is living up to its reputation!

OpenTable OPEN is halted following the announcement that Priceline PCLN will be acquiring the company for $103 per share. The triple digit share price is 46.2 percent higher than OpenTable’s Thursday close. Priceline confirmed the deal shortly after Dow Jones broke the story (before shares were halted).

What is Priceline paying for? A platform for users to book restaurant tables online. OpenTable also sells software to restaurants to help them manage operations. The acquisition will expand Priceline’s reach with the 15 million customers that use OpenTable each month and 31,000 restaurants.

Shares of OpenTable traded momentarily before the halt and were last up 13.12 percent, still far below the acquisition price. Trading is scheduled to resume at 8:30 am and shares are likely to record an additional double digit jump.

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The $2.6 billion acquisition is also having an impact on several peers as the massive premium will change valuation models in the industry and increase the possibility of a takeover.

• Yelp YELP shares are up 9.95 percent
• Groupon GRPN shares are up 9.74 percent
• LiveDeal LIVE shares are up 11.84 percent
• Angie’s List ANGI shares are up 6.28

Priceline CEO Darren Huston commented on the acquisition, “They provide us with a natural extension into restaurant marketing services and a wonderful and highly-valued booking experience for our global customers.”

Shares of Priceline are mostly unmoved on the news, last up 0.65 percent to $1,226.