

Open Table files for an IPO and reveals its finances - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/30/opentable-files-for-ipo-and-reveals-its-finances/

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callmeed
Raising $40M sounds more like a VC round than an IPO. Not any more, I guess.

The article makes it sound like they totally dominate this industry ... but
they only show 59 restaurants in my state of Oregon. They may be the market
leader, but it seems like either there's a lot of untapped market or its just
not that big.

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silencio
For me, opentable pretty much dominates as the one stop for restaurant
reservations and makes my dinner date planning go much faster when used
together with yelp for those nights we want to go somewhere nice and
impossible to get seated reasonably without a reservation. But I'm in Los
Angeles (and a quick glance shows 300+ restaurants on opentable within a half
hour driving distance, and around 700 in the general LA/OC area).

However, most restaurants out there are probably not large or popular enough
that you'll want or need to make a reservation, and you can just walk right in
and get seated. Among the ones interested in doing reservations for more than
just special occasions and large groups, even less would have to be interested
in the hardware, software, training and more that they need to work with
opentable. And then customers have to be interested in making reservations
there in the first place.

Obviously there are a lot more than 59 restaurants in Oregon and 700 in Los
Angeles, but the number isn't as small as it seems at first glance when
considering the number of restaurants that benefit from such a service.

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Dilpil
The obvious discussion question: who will be buying, who will be shorting?

