HotelTonight buys restaurant booking app PrimaTable
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US: Boutique hotel booking app builder acquires former Google employees in deal
HotelTonight has taken over PrimaTable, a "data-savvy restaurant
booking app". The company says the deal was done for talent
acquisition reasons, and plans to employ PrimaTable's lead data
scientists to work on optimizing its last-minute yield-management
for boutique hotels.
PrimaTable co-founder Jamie Davidson has been made vice president
of product. Prior to co-founding PrimaTable, he worked at Google on
its display algorithm. Colin Zima becomes lead data scientist.
Before co-founding PrimaTable, he spent four years working on
Google's search ranking algorithms.
Sam Shank, CEO of HotelTonight, told Tnooz: "We're not on
a buying spree and we're not looking to acquire companies to run.
But we may be looking at talent acquisitions that are tactical and
fill particular gaps in what we need. Products for restaurants and
hotels are similar: fixed cost products that are perishable and
experience variable demand. These are two very smart individuals
who have given a lot of thought to the dynamics behind such
products. This will bring our apps one big step closer to
perfecting the first ever real-time commerce platform to power the
mobile generation."
HotelTonight said it had no plans to move in to the restaurant
sector, and was committed to focusing on the hotel market.
www.hoteltonight.com
