Priceline to buy online restaurant reservation firm OpenTable for $2.6 bn

Priceline Group Inc, the biggest US online travel agent, yesterday struck a deal to buy Internet restaurant reservation company OpenTable Inc for $2.6 billion, in order to expand into online restaurant bookings.

Priceline is offering to pay $103 per share in cash, a 46 per cent premium to OpenTable's closing price on Thursday.

After the acquisition, OpenTable's  headquarters will remain in San Francisco. It will operate as an independent business under  its current management as a part of The Priceline Group.

OpenTable is a provider of restaurant reservations via the web and mobile applications, seating more than 15 million diners per month across more than 31,000 restaurants.

Its service enables diners to see which restaurants have available tables, select a restaurant based on diner reviews, menus, and other helpful information, and reserve a table.

OpenTable has seated more than 125 million diners worldwide through its mobile solutions, which were introduced in 2008.

The San Francisco-based company, which charges $1.00 from a restaurant if a diner reserves a table through its website, was founded in 1998 and operates in the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the UK.

"OpenTable is a great match for The Priceline Group.  They provide us with a natural extension into restaurant marketing services and a wonderful and highly-valued booking experience for our global customers," said Darren Huston, president & CEO of Priceline.

Connecticut-based Priceline is the world's leading accommodation booking platform with an average of more than 1 million guests staying every night in accommodations booked through one of its brands in over 480,000 properties in over 200 countries.