Zagat cost Google US$200m

Added by Erik West on September 9, 2011

Search giant Google was reported on Friday to have paid US$125m for Zagat, a popular restaurant review site.

Google announced the acquisition of the 30-year-old Zagat on Thursday, yet did not disclose the purchase price. Zagat is reported to have previously been valued at about US$200m by Goldman Sachs.

Google Vice President, Marissa Mayer posted a blog entry on September 8 saying that she found that the earliest forms of user-generated content was used by Zagat’s founders, Tim and Nina Zagat, who issued burgundy pocket-sized guides to restaurants in over 100 cities.

In a statement on its official blog, Google said it plans to integrate Zagat’s reviews with popular online services like Google Maps and Google Places.

The acquisition of Zagat comes about nine months after Groupon declined Google’s bid to acquire it, and almost two years if failed to buy Yelp.