Priceline to buy Apple partner OpenTable for $2.6 billion
Online travel behemoth Priceline has struck a deal that will see it pay $2.6 billion for OpenTable, a provider of online reservation technology for restaurants that underpins Siri's table booking functionality.
Siri's OpenTable integration in iOS 6, left, and iOS 7, right.
Priceline will pay $103 per share -- a $29 premium over the stock's June 12 closing price -- for OpenTable in the all-cash acquisition. Executives from both companies touted Priceline's ability to help OpenTable as the latter attempts to expand into foreign markets.
"We look forward to helping the OpenTable team accelerate their global expansion, increase the value offered to their restaurant partners, and enhance the end-to-end experience for our collective customers across desktop and mobile devices," Priceline CEO Darren Huston said.
OpenTable chief Matt Roberts echoed the sentiment, calling out Priceline's "exceptional track record of customer service in dozens of languages around the world."
Apple integrated OpenTable into Siri beginning with iOS 6, allowing the personal digital assistant to help iPhone owners make restaurant reservations. It is unclear how the Priceline agreement, which is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, may affect OpenTable's relationship with Apple.
Siri's OpenTable integration in iOS 6, left, and iOS 7, right.
Priceline will pay $103 per share -- a $29 premium over the stock's June 12 closing price -- for OpenTable in the all-cash acquisition. Executives from both companies touted Priceline's ability to help OpenTable as the latter attempts to expand into foreign markets.
"We look forward to helping the OpenTable team accelerate their global expansion, increase the value offered to their restaurant partners, and enhance the end-to-end experience for our collective customers across desktop and mobile devices," Priceline CEO Darren Huston said.
OpenTable chief Matt Roberts echoed the sentiment, calling out Priceline's "exceptional track record of customer service in dozens of languages around the world."
Apple integrated OpenTable into Siri beginning with iOS 6, allowing the personal digital assistant to help iPhone owners make restaurant reservations. It is unclear how the Priceline agreement, which is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, may affect OpenTable's relationship with Apple.
Comments
When I see this kind of thing, I realize I live in a very different world than some people. I couldn't tell you the last time I went to a restaurant that even had reservations.
Also, that's almost the cost of the Beats transaction.
The mistake they made with Siri is that it could do niche tasks like this before it could do something as simple as open an App on your phone.
They haven't built enough trust in Siri to perform the simple tasks, so advanced tasks like "Make a reservation" or "Buy me tickets" are way out of people's perception of what it can do.
A billion here. A billion there. Pretty soon you're talking about real money.
What surprises me the most about this acquisition is that Priceline has this much money. This is the same as Amazon have a tons of money, all they do is perform a service based on other company's products. In other words, they don't really have anything of true value. Priceline doesn't actually rent any hotel rooms or provide any airline tickets, they merely find a service that sells them for the cheapest. How many middleman services do we need and why do companies pay them so much in advertising to keep them in existence?
You don't know much about Siri. It was always able to open apps. In fact this was a feature of the OS before Siri, just like playing a song by voice. There were many other voice commands that were not on by default as well under accessibility options. Opening apps and songs was on by default. I used it all the time.
You don't know much about Siri. It was not able to open Apps, and was very limited in specific commands for the first and second year.
Yep, Siri couldn't open apps until iOS6.
Dude. I used the feature before Siri and continued to use it till this day. There are hundreds of undocumented feature in all Apple products. For instance people think that saying hey Siri is copying Google, but it has been a part of OS X which is what iOS is built on since 2001. Once turned on, you could have your mac listen for "computer" then a command for hands free control. They actually don't mention the fact that if you turn it on in settings that you have been able stream every purchase you ever made from the AppStore without having to download it since 2011. It now even supports playlist which it didn't at first.
Siri was not able to open Apps at launch. End of discussion.
I use OpenTable all the time. It has always work perfectly. I have never used Siri to interface with OpenTable so I can't comment on that.
What surprises me the most about this acquisition is that Priceline has this much money. This is the same as Amazon have a tons of money, all they do is perform a service based on other company's products. In other words, they don't really have anything of true value. Priceline doesn't actually rent any hotel rooms or provide any airline tickets, they merely find a service that sells them for the cheapest. How many middleman services do we need and why do companies pay them so much in advertising to keep them in existence?
I don't understand why you find this so surprising. What is so hard to understand? Priceline is an aggregator just like OpenTable. Totally valid business model.
... and people are still concerned that Apple paid too much for Beats ...
Dont think Apple paid too much at all. Beats basically dominates the headphone market, and headphones are the #1 accessory that almost everyone buys.
If Apple was buying OpenTable and it was started by an African-American rapper this article would be 300 posts deep by now mostly complaining about how Tim Cook should be fired and making racist comments about stereotypical foods.
What did OpenTable make in revenue and profits last year?
Surprisingly, although Siri can open apps, she can't close them. I discovered this recently when I was trying to get Siri to show me something on a map but she was such a miserable failure I said... just close maps. Sorry I can't close an app! Why the hell not?
What did OpenTable make in revenue and profits last year?
... and people are still concerned that Apple paid too much for Beats ...
I'll bet we won't see nearly as many articles about whether Priceline spent too much money for OpenTable as Apple spent on Beats or whether Priceline's CEO knows what the hell he's doing. I'm fairly certain Priceline is taking far more risk than Apple did but where's all the second-guessing about this deal. Of course, Priceline gets a free pass unlike Apple because the hedge funds are completely enamored with Priceline. Priceline has about $7 billion cash and is spending $2.6 billion on OpenTable. Apple has $150 billion in cash and spent $3 billion on Beats. So where's all the cries of criticism, anguish and doubts about the Priceline/OpenTable deal. Not a peep. I find the bias against Apple's acquisitions rather absurd and puke-worthy.