IAC buys restaurant recommender Urbanspoon
Urbanspoon, the startup behind a popular restaurant recommendation application on the iPhone, has been acquired by web giant IAC. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but TechCrunch hears it was in the millions of dollars.
The Seattle startup has a web-based recommendation service, but it found its biggest success with an app that uses the iPhone 3G’s GPS features and WiFi/cell tower triangulation to provide recommendations based on your exact location. It also uses the device’s Accelerometer to create a fun interface, with users shaking the iPhone to get their recommendations. Last Month, UrbanSpoon said the app is on 4 million iPhones, and has provided recommendations for 200 million “shakes.” It’s also ranked 11th on Apple’s recent list of the most popular free apps.
The deal reportedly closed on February 13 but wasn’t announced until today. In what I’m sure is a complete coincidence, this news comes at the same time as IAC’s bleak first quarter earnings report, in which the company posted a net loss of $28.6 million due to the weak demand for online ads. Other IAC properties include Citysearch and Evite.
Urbanspoon is self-funded. This is the second acquisition of a popular iPhone app announced this week. The other was Amazon’s purchase of Lexcycle, maker of the popular eBook reader Stanza.
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About the Author, Anthony Ha
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.