Yelp Soars Almost 18% After Earnings Beat, Eat24 Sale

Yelp Inc. recovered from a damaging change to its ad business to post a big earnings beat Thursday, sending shares skyrocketing higher as the company also announced a partnership with GrubHub Inc. Yelp reported second-quarter net income of $7.6 million, or 9 cents a share, on sales of $208.9 million, up from results of a penny a share on sales of $173.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Analysts on average expected a loss of 8 cents a share on sales of $205 million, according to FactSet. Yelp's advertising business, which was hit by an update that caused an advertiser revolt in the first quarter, recovered to post sales of $186.6 million, up from $151.9 million a year ago and beating average analyst estimates of $184.1 million. In a separate announcement, Yelp said it is selling its Eat24 business, which it bought for $134 million in 2015, for $287.5 million to GrubHub and integrating GrubHub's similar offering into its own platform. Yelp also increased the low end of its full-year revenue guidance to $855 million from $850 million, and announced a $200 million share-repurchase plan. Yelp stock, which closed with a 2.7% decline at $31.37, jumped almost 18% to nearly $37 in late trading.