Before Yelp, OpenTable, and the plethora of online communities devoted to restaurant reviews, there was Zagat, a curated, for-pay collation of restaurant reviews and scores from around the country. At the service’s peak in 2011, when Google acquired it for $151 million, it was a privilege to be featured in a Zagat guide. But the platform’s development has stagnated, and a new report claims that Google’s looking to offload the brand in the near future.
While a sale is certainly not guaranteed, Google’s had informal talks with potential acquirers over the last few months, according to Reuters. The transaction would reportedly include the Zagat brand name, along with its website.
Google’s acquisition was an interesting move for the Mountain View-based tech giant. At that time, it was believed that Google had big plans for the brand, and while that may have been true, things didn’t turn out that way. The project was spearheaded by former Google executive Marissa Mayer, who left Google to become the CEO of Yahoo. And ever since her departure, Zagat became less of a priority as Google funneled its efforts toward Google+, its nascent social network.
Google’s continued to evolve the brand over time, though, and currently lists Zagat reviews in restaurant listings on Google Maps. The platform’s small team, which is a part of Google’s holding company, Alphabet, maintains Zagat.com, and regularly publishes feature articles about restaurants in some of the biggest cities around the United States.
But Google’s looking to shed its non-core businesses. In June, it sold robotics company Boston Dynamics to Tokyo-based SoftBank, and in February, it sold Terra Bella, a maps imaging company, to private satellite operator Planet Labs.
Unless things change, it looks like Zagat’s next on the chopping block.
Source: Ruters
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