Doesn't Apple tend to buy relatively unknown companies and fold their IP into their products? Beats Audio was the only major one I remember them absorbing, and was rebranded as Apple Music.

But Beats had that upscale demographic and positive brand image that Apple covets so dearly, whereas Yelp feels very much like a bygone brand of the 2010s IPO rush (along with Groupon and Foursquare). Not sure Apple would be interested. They can just pay for the POI data. Why buy the cow when all you need is the milk?

I don't think Apple cares about any Yelp "IP". It's a local establishment discovery and review site.

You suggest "they can just pay for the POI data." Which is basically what I'm suggesting.

Yelp's actual underlying asset is its POI database. Apple might want that if they decide to own rather than rent (which is a transition Google made a while back). Not at any price, but if Yelp continues to struggle the valuation might make sense.

Wouldn’t Foursquare make more sense as a much much cheaper acquisiton if none of the things actually driving most of Yelp’s value don’t matter? Yelp is still valued at close to $3B. If it recovers half of what it lost, Apple would have to pay close to $4B for Yelp. If it doesn’t recover at all, still talking over $3B.

While Foursquare wouldn’t even be for $1B. It was last valued at $300M 3 years ago and just raised money again. So at worst it’s 4x cheaper. At best, 5x or 6x cheaper. The business model probably fits better too with having an enterprise package with Apple Maps.

Wow, I would have thought the revenue stream from advertisers, the returning users that make the ads worth buying, or the reviews that tie them together would be more valuable assets than then location data anyone could scrape out of the state business register.