Priceline Acquires Australian Restaurant Reservations Platform AS Digital

With TripAdvisor becoming a serial acquirer of restaurant platforms in Europe, the Priceline Group sought to expand the reach of its OpenTable platform into Asia Pacific with the acquisition of Melbourne, Australia-based AS Digital.

A restaurant reservation platform for consumers, hotels and entertainment companies, AS Digital, which has a consumer site Bookarestaurant.com, will see its operations integrated into OpenTable, which the Priceline Group acquired for $2.6 billion in 2014.

AS Digital has thousands of restaurant clients in more than  40 countries, although its strength is in Australia and elsewhere in Asia Pacific.

The acquisition of AS Digital is relatively small by the Priceline Group’s standards and hence it did not have to immediately disclose the terms, including the price tag.

“AS Digital is a pioneer in B2B software solutions for the restaurant industry, building a highly competitive brand in one of the fastest-growing markets,” said Darren Huston, CEO of The Priceline Group. “This move extends the Group’s initiatives in digital and mobile commerce and accelerates our international efforts in online dining as we continue to scale this business.”

AS Digital’s Bookarestaurant.com touts its reservations as being “instantly confirmed,” and that’s always a plus for officials at the digitally mindful Priceline Group.

OpenTable has been preoccupied with revamping its back-end consumer and business technology platforms, and experienced double-digit growth in dining reservations in the U.S. domestic market in the second quarter, according to Priceline.

OpenTable is poised to expand in new international markets later in 2015, and the AS Digital acquisition is part of that strategy.