Yelp Inc (YELP) Stock Price Plunges 10% On Report The Company Is No Longer Exploring A Sale

Shares of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) tumbled more than 10 percent Thursday after a report that the consumer review website is no longer exploring a sale, Bloomberg reported. The stock plunged 10.5 percent to a 52-week low of $36.10 in afternoon trading.

Although Yelp has received interest from “several” potential suitors, the company will hold off on a sale for the "immediate future," according to the report. Yelp may pursue a deal again if co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Stoppelman changes his mind, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report comes as the company continues to face slowing subscriber growth. Average monthly unique visitors climbed 8 percent to 142 million in the latest quarter, but that was down from growth of 40 percent during the same period the prior year.

The San Francisco-based company, which has a market value of nearly $3 billion, went public in 2012. Since then, users have written more than 77 million reviews on the site, according to the company, covering everything from dining to hotels and travel. The site averages more than 142 million unique visitors monthly.

However, the company has seen its stock tumble more than 22 percent so far this year. The company’s quarterly earnings missed Wall Street forecasts in April, while Yelp's revenue outlook for the current quarter also missed estimates, disappointing investors.

For 2015, Yelp has maintained its revenue outlook of $574 million to $579 million, which would be sales growth of 53 percent compared to a year earlier, just shy of analysts' estimates of $579.21 million.

Yelp announced plans in February to buy Eat24, an online and app-based food-ordering service, for $134 million after the company’s earnings forecast for this year missed Wall Street expectations due to slowing subscriber growth. The San Bruno, California, company contributed sales of nearly $5 million in the quarter, Yelp said in its earnings report.

Shares of Yelp have lost nearly 50 percent in the last 12 months.