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Seamless, formerly known as SeamlessWeb, has picked up the tab for MenuPages at a price of $15 million.
Seamless, created in 1999, was purchased by food service conglomerate ARAMARK in 2006, but gained independence last June. The company purchased MenuPages from New York Media, the company that owns New York magazine- but MenuPages and the mag’s popular “Grub Street” had never been interlinked. CEO Jonathan Zabusky of Seamless cited the breadth of user data available along with MenuPages as a reason to purchase the service and said in a press release:
“For customers and restaurant partners, a Seamless and MenuPages union makes perfect sense. We’ll offer the most relevant local neighborhood content and restaurant data, the best mobile platform for food delivery and menu browsing, and the largest and most reliable source of customer orders for restaurant owners. With 40,000 of the most accurate menus available via mobile apps and online, Seamless is definitively the most trustworthy source for hungry diners.”
The restaurant and menu subset of hyperlocal sites is one that is surprisingly underdeveloped- sometimes even in major metro areas- but the vertical seems to have been heating up in recent weeks. In additon to the MenuPages acquisition, rival GrubHub picked up food delivery site Dotmenu, and Google recently purchased veteran local media company Zagat for an undisclosed sum.
New York Media CEO Anup Bagaria also offered comment in the press release:
“MenuPages, which we have owned since 2008, has been a great investment for New York Media. We are thrilled to have found a new home for the site in Seamless, that will be able to capitalize more fully on all that MenuPages offers. Following the sale we will continue our focus on and expansion of our core online verticals including Vulture (entertainment), The Cut (fashion) and Daily Intel (news and politics). In addition, New York Media will continue to operate its national network of food blogs, Grub Street, which will continue its content partnership with MenuPages that has been in place since 2009.”
In 2011, Seamless projects $400 million in order volume for the site.
