| Yelp, the popular online recommendation
site, reportedly walked away from an acquisition bid by Google, private
equity firm Elevation Partners said Wednesday it plans to invest up to
$100 million in the company.
The investment firm co-founded by
singer-musician-philanthropist Bono said it has agreed to make a $25
million investment in the
San Francisco,
California, startup through the purchase of Series E preferred stock. Elevation plans to increase the
total investment to as much as $100 million by buying shares from Yelp
employees and other shareholders.
The investment would give the firm a
minority stake in Yelp, said Marc Bodnick, a managing director and
co-founder, in a statement. Yelp plans to use the additional funding to deepen its market leadership position throughout the
US, accelerate growth in
Canada and throughout
Western Europe,
Elevation Partners is a $1.9 billion
private equity firm with investments in companies such as Palm.
Co-founder Fred Anderson is a former CFO of Apple.
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