TripAdvisor buys Dutch restaurant sites Iens, SeatMe

Dutch restaurant review site IENS and reservation site SeatMe were bought by American travel website TripAdvisor, the companies announced Thursday. The US based company is specialised in providing reviews of travel related content. The parties did not disclose how much TripAdvisor is spending on the transaction, but it was estimated at over 10 million euros, an anonymous source told broadcaster Nos. IENS and SeatMe are expecting a combined turnover of six to seven million euros this year. Despite the change of ownership, the companies will continue to operate from their headquarters in Amsterdam. IENS was founded in 1998 by Iens Boswijk and is the biggest restaurant site in the Netherlands. The site receives 20 million visitors annually and there are more than 20,000 restaurants on the webpage. Over 4,000 reviews are added weekly. IENS and SeatMe merged in 2012. Through SeatMe it is possible to book a table online from over 1,500 restaurants in the Netherlands.