Activist investor TCS Capital calls on Yelp to explore sale - WSJ (updated)

Yelp

23/05/2023 24:30

(Adds details from the WSJ report on plans for sale )
       May 22 (Reuters) - Activist investor TCS Capital
Management has built a stake in Yelp Inc  YELP.N  and is urging
the service-recommendation site to explore strategic options,
including a sale, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing
people familiar with the matter.
    TCS Capital, owning over 4% of the outstanding shares of
Yelp's common stock, ranks among the company's five biggest
shareholders, the report said on Monday. TCS Capital has been an
investor in Yelp for most of the past five years, but the stake
has not been revealed publicly before.
    In a letter to Yelp's board seen by the newspaper, TCS
Capital's founder, Eric Semler, suggests that Yelp could be sold
for at least $70 per share, or more than double the current
stock price.
    Shares of Yelp closed at $32.52 on Monday.
    Semler also intends to tell Yelp's board that his investment
firm, along with a group including an unnamed executive from a
similar business, is ready to make a bid for Yelp, according to
the report.
    Alternatively, Semler plans to say Yelp could explore a
tax-free merger with the online-services company, Angi, the
report said.
    "Yelp maintains an active dialogue with our shareholders and
values constructive feedback on our business and ways to create
value," a Yelp spokesperson told Reuters.
    TCS Capital Management could not be reached.
    
    

 (Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika
Syamnath and Shilpi Majumdar)
 ((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com;))