engine - 2:28 pm on Oct 24, 2012 (gmt 0)

This just in: online recommendations and listings site Yelp is stepping up its international push and buying its biggest rival in Europe, Qype. It will pay €18.6 million for all of Qype’s shares and is adding another 970,000 shares of Yelp’s Class A common stock, for a total purchase price of approximately $50 million. Qype is headquartered in Germany, with operations across Europe. Combined, the two will have a service covering some 93 million monthly unique visitors and 32 million reviews, Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppelman noted in a blog post. That should help Yelp compete better against the likes of Google, which combines its search, listings, user feedback and maps into a powerful product to rival that of Yelp’s.Yelp Acquires Qype for $50 Million [techcrunch.com]