It may get hot in the valley again pretty soon.
Local review website Yelp.com reportedly has turned down Google’s (GOOG) $500 million offer, marking yet another curious event in the world of tech start-ups.
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reports Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman walked away from “an all-but-signed deal” as the two companies had agreed on a price and were working through the acquisition’s final details. But “something happened” and Yelp notified Google over the weekend that it wasn’t going to sell, he says.
The news comes on the heels of reports that Twitter may actually turn a profit this year. The microblogging sensation will make $25 million from search deals with Google and Microsoft (MSFT), according to Bloomberg, which estimates Twitter’s operating costs between $20 million to $25 million a year.
And just a few days ago, Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian firm that has invested in Facebook, said it is buying a $180 million stake in social-gaming company Zynga.
These developments prompt VC Paul Kedrosky to wonder whether the tech world has gone crazy, or if the industry is on the verge of something big.
