NEW YORK The publishers of Zagat Survey, the popular restaurant guidebooks that rate and rank eateries based on price, service and food quality, said Monday that it was entertaining bids to sell the company.
Lawyers Tim and Nina Zagat created the guidebooks on a whim in 1979, using restaurant reviews prepared by friends. Zagat Survey now uses more than 300,000 reviewers to cover such other leisure activities as travel, nightlife and shopping in more than 100 countries. Last year it sold more than 5.5 million guides, according to a report in The New York Times.
Tim and Nina Zagat said in a statement Monday that their company retained investment firm Goldman Sachs as a financial adviser while it explores “strategic opportunities,” including a possible sale of the company.
“Coming off 2007 as our best year ever, we see many opportunities ahead driven by the strength of the Zagat brand and the expansion of our user-generated content and distribution vehicles,” the Zagats said in the statement. “From this position and with the changes in the broader media and technology environments, we have determined that it is the right time to take a look at our company's options for even more rapid long-term growth."
Published reports indicate the sale could bring around $200 million.
In 2000 the Zagats sold a third of their firm to an investor group led by private-equity firm General Atlantic Partners. At that time the guidebook empire was valued at approximately $100 million.
