Google’s Zagat Purchase Flies Under The Federal Radar By Paying Overtime?

Regardless of whether you’ve actually used Zagat’s website or service or not, you’ve definitely seen the signs and stickers if you’ve been to a restaurant in most major US cities.  Prior to Yelp, Google Places and other insta-reviews, Zagat was the crem de la crem of ratings for restaurants.  If you can remember back to the show “The Restaurant” even before Gordon Ramsey was a household name, they emphasized how important a Zagat rating is.

Nibble on after the break

Fast forward to last week, Google announced that they had acquired Zagat for $125 million dollars.  Now there is a little law on the federal books references to as Hart-Scott-Rodino which calls for any business purchasing business transaction of over $66 million dollars requiring a federal anti-trust review.  In the Google/Zagat case $125 million dollars would have required a review… not so fast though.

As Greg Sterling, owner of the Screenwerk website, points out, Google may have flown under the federal radar by paying Zagat co-founders, Tim and Nina Zagat, back owed overtime. In the deal with Google both Zagats are staying on board as co-charis for the Google owned Zagat.  Google has felt the noble obligation of paying the Zagat’s $59 million dollars in back overtime for which the Zagats didn’t compensate themselves for before selling the business.

In a nutshell, since Google is paying back pay and not actually attributing that portion of the deal toward price of the company, no anti-trust review was necessary.  If you want to see it explained a little more in depth visit Sterling’s site here

Source: Screenwerk via SAI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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