Dave Smith / Business Insider
Following the news, shares of the product review site gained more than 20%.
And in a note to clients on Thursday, Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray, one of the top tech analysts on Wall Street, said he thinks there is a better than 50% chance that ultimately, the company finds a buyer.
Munster said in his note that he sees the most logical buyers as Google, Facebook, and Apple, writing that all of these companies, "would benefit from further traction in the local advertising space, have ample capital to consummate a sale, and would experience technology infrastructure synergies."
Before Thursday's news and big spike, the most recent news out of Yelp was its quarterly earnings report, which disappointed and sent the stock tumbling.
Analysts at Jefferies also said that Priceline, GrubHub, and Yahoo could make sense as buyers of Yelp, but added that Google makes the most sense, but notes that in the past, the companies have had a rocky relationship.
Credit Suisse noted that a hurdle to an imminent deal between Yelp and Google could be Google CFO Ruth Porat, who isn't expected to start the job until May 26.
In pre-market trade on Friday, Yelp shares were down about 1%.