No real details yet, but an interesting turn of events
Comments »Monthly Archives: September 2011
Geithner Calls On World Banks to Boost Growth; But Admits fiscal Stimulus is Not a Viable Option
Bartz Rips YHOO Board; Intends to Stay on Board
Lunch Break: Fuck Emergency Help and Public Safety
Flash: Google Buys Zagat
Google Acquires Zagat To Flesh Out Local Reviews
Google has acquired Zagat, one of the most well-known names in restaurant reviews. Zagat is best known for its small guidebooks (the dead-tree sort) that offer reviews and recommendations on restaurants around the world. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Zagat was founded back in 1979, and, according to the company, now includes ratings and reviews submitted by 350,000 ‘surveyors’ — its own consumers submit content for use in future guidebooks. In recent years the company has moved its reviews online as well, and it offers mobile applications for the top smartphone platforms. In 2008 Zagatreportedly put itself up for sale with an asking price of around $200 million, but subsequently took itself off the market (at least, until now).
The move is part of Google’s mission to improve its local products, which are now run by Google VP Marissa Mayer (Mayer has long been one of the most public faces at the company, and was head of Search for a decade).
Google had previously been in talks to acquire Yelp in late 2009, but those discussions fell apart and Yelp walked away from some $500 million. Since then, the relationship between Google and Yelp has been tenuous, as Google borrowed liberally from Yelp’s database of reviews to flesh out its Google Places pages. Google has toned down the practice in the last few months, and is now clearly looking to boost the number of reviews it can call its own using features like Hotpot and through deals. Hence today’s acquisition.
From the Google blog:
So, today, I’m thrilled that Google has acquired Zagat. Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.
With Zagat, we gain a world-class team that has more experience in consumer based-surveys, recommendations and reviews than anyone else in the industry. Founded by Tim and Nina Zagat more than 32 years ago, Zagat has established a trusted and well-loved brand the world over, operating in 13 categories and more than 100 cities. The Zagats have demonstrated their ability to innovate and to do so with tremendous insight. Their surveys may be one of the earliest forms of UGC (user-generated content)—gathering restaurant recommendations from friends, computing and distributing ratings before the Internet as we know it today even existed. Their iconic pocket-sized guides with paragraphs summarizing and “snippeting” sentiment were “mobile” before “mobile” involved electronics. Today, Zagat provides people with democratized, authentic and comprehensive view of where to eat, drink, stay, shop and play worldwide based on millions of reviews and ratings.
Top Insider Trades For the Past 30 Days
FLASH: Flood Warning in Effect From MD to NY; Over 100k Asked to Evacuate
Hurricane Katia is keeping Tropiocal Storm Lee stationary dumping more rain then expected if the system had just moved out to shore.
Comments »Fed’s William Poole: RISK OF `ASTONISHING’ RISE IN INFLATION
Greek CDS Now Spell 91% Chance of Default
Trichet: Threats to The Euro Zone Has Increased
Gartner Lowers 2011 and 2012 PC Growth
Ron Paul From the Reagan Presidential Library
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rLVOh1dfFc&feature=player_embedded 450 300]
Comments »FLASH: Refinery Stocks Ripping Higher
Norway’s Krone Appears To Be the Safe Haven Currency of Choice
A Look at Small Cap Growth Paying Dividends
How Cheap Are Stocks ? A Look Ahead on Earnings
Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
Upgrades
STO – Statoil ASA upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
ASTE – Astec Industries upgraded to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity
NCR – NCR Corp upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan
GPN – Global Payment initiated with a Buy at Citigroup
JNPR – Juniper Networks upgraded to Buy at Auriga; tgt lowered to $26
SAP – SAP AG assumed with a Buy at Nomura
DRI – Darden Restaurants upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo
XOM – Exxon Mobil upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
RVBD – Riverbed Technology initiated with an Outperform at Raymond James
LAYN – Layne Christensen downgraded to Neutral at Boenning & Scattergood
HSP – Hospira downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James
SINA – SINA initiated with a Mkt Perform at Rodman & Renshaw
ACI – Arch Coal upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Atlantic Equities
Downgrades
TIN – Temple-Inland downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS
VMW – VMware initiated with a Neutral at Nomura
TZOO – Travelzoo downgraded to Mkt Perform at Morgan Keegan; tgt lowered to $32
DNDN – Dendreon initiated with an Underperform at Bernstein
MDVN – Medivation initiated with an Outperform at Bernstein
Comments »Gapping Up and Down This Morning
Gapping up
NEOP +4%, RBS +4%, DB +3.8%, PAY +4.6%, CS +1.8%, SFD +2.9%, BCS +2.3%, UBS +1.8%, ING +1.3%, NOK +0.9%,
Gapping down
TIE -9.4%, SEAC -6%, GIII -13.5%, RPTP -5.7%, GNC -5.3%, CLMT -4.3%,DG -2.9%, MW -1.9%, BHP -1.3%,
Comments »In Play and On the Wires
OECD Cuts Global Growth Estimates; Urges Central Banks to Act to Stave Off Recession
“Growth is turning out to be much slower than we thought three months ago, and given the high uncertainty, the risk of a period of negative growth … has gone up,” OECD chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan said.
U.S. growth is set to be much weaker than previously forecast by the OECD at 1.1% in the third quarter and 0.4% in the fourth, compared with forecasts of 2.9% and 3% at the end of May.
Mr. Padoan said the OECD doesn’t expect a recession of the magnitude seen in 2008 and 2009, but protracted contractions in some countries would knock confidence, which in turn risks derailing medium-term growth.”
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