• Bits Blog et al. , Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:02 PM

Searching for answers -- and even signs of life -- the media on Tuesday continued to pick through the smoldering remains of Google's failed attempt to acquire local reviews site Yelp for over $500 million. Talking to The Times' Bits blog, one source briefed on the negotiations challenged the popular notion that it was Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman who called off the deal at the eleventh hour. Insisting that it was in fact Google's call, "The person said that Google executives believed that their counterparts at Yelp weren't being 'transparent,'" while "the executives also didn't want to let the negotiations be driven by leaks to the press, the person said, implying that it was Yelp that had first leaked word of the talks."

After Google's initial offer, multiple sources tell Bits that Yelp countered by saying it had received a higher offer from another party in the vicinity of $750 million.

Writes The Los Angeles Times, "Certainly Yelp has some precedents in the move ... Facebook and Twitter have famously spurned overtures for acquisition for even more money."

According to BoomTown, "Yelp insiders" told "several sources" that they considered Microsoft the only realistic deal spoiler -- with both the means and the interest in acquiring Yelp, "even as they openly have scoffed at the idea of ever selling to it [sic] over the hipper and more copacetic [sic] Google."

Still, BoomTown doesn't put it past Microsoft, which it speculates could "rise to the occasion now, taking advantage of the Silicon Valley-style breakdown between Google and Yelp."

With regard to Google and Yelp, Bits suggests that, "If an acquisition makes sense, it may still get done." Yet, while $550 million could always come in handy, PC World argues that Yelp doesn't need Google nearly as much as Google -- which has been itching to entrench itself further in the local content space -- needs Yelp. "If Yelp wants to stay independent, that'd be fine by me," writes PC World's Jared Newman.

For one, Yelp listing have perhaps the best natural search optimization in the business without Google's help. Also, like Facebook and other top destinations, Yelp has a dedicated community of users who seek out the site directly, rather than relying on a search engine like Google to show them the way.

Read the whole story at Bits Blog et al. »