YELP stock was up on Thursday following talk about a possible merger with Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN).
According to these recent reports, Groupon is considering merging with Yelp (NYSE:YELP) to unlock more value. The combination makes sense as Groupon offers daily deals to customers and Yelp hosts reviews for businesses.
It’s still unknown exactly what, if any, plans the two companies have for a merger. This includes no leaked details about possible offer prices or how the deal would go down. Groupon and Yelp are also both refusing to comment on the matter.
What we do know is that there is mixed support for such a merger from Groupon investors. Robert Chapman, founder of Chapman Capital, sold part of his stake in the company earlier this week. He believes that such a large deal isn’t right for Groupon right now. However, reports claim that there are other investors in favor of such a deal.
While the current rumors moving YELP stock and GRPN stock have to do with a deal between the two, that may not be all there is going on. Some analysts believe that GRPN itself may become the target of an acquisition or merger, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Groupon may not be the only company eyeing Yelp. There were rumors going around last week that Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was interested in picking up the company. These reports were claiming that FB was willing to pay as much as $5.8 billion for YELP.
YELP stock was up 4% and GRPN stock was down 4% as of Thursday afternoon.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
