CHANGE OF HEART: Yelp was exploring a sale that could fetch more than US$3.5bil (RM13.2bil).
Yelp Inc, operator of consumer review website yelp.com, had temporarily decided not to pursue a sale, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The company has had several interested suitors after which it hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc to help find a buyer, Bloomberg said.
The company's shares fell as much as 15% to a two-year low of US$36.10 (RM136.60) in afternoon trading. Yelp had a market capitalisation of about US$3.2bil (RM12.1bil) as of Wednesday's close.
Yelp may pursue a sale again if chief executive officer Jeremy Stoppelman changes his mind, Bloomberg said. The report did not name the suitors or say why Stoppelman had taken the decision to halt the sale process.
The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
Yelp was working with investment bankers to explore a sale that could fetch more than US$3.5bil (RM13.2bil), the Wall Street Journal reported in May.
The company's subscriber growth has been slowing in an increasingly competitive US market and it has been trying to expand in other markets and diversify into restaurant bookings, event management and payments. — Reuters
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