Buying market share in foodservice segments outside its core fine-dining niche and expanding the functionality of its product line, technology vendor OpenTable Inc. has acquired the ProHost table-management and RSViP reservations-administration software brands from Restaurant Solutions Group of Dallas, a division of Ez2get.com Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 26, 2001) - Buying market share in foodservice segments outside its core, fine-dining niche and expanding the functionality of its product line, OpenTable Inc. has acquired the ProHost table-management and RSViP reservations-administration software brands from Restaurant Solutions Group of Dallas.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed by San Francisco-based OpenTable, a subscription-based provider of real-time Internet-reservation services and software for customer-relationship-management, or CRM. Restaurant Solutions Group was called Rock Systems before its acquisition last year by Dallas-based Ez2get.com, an online restaurant order-routing service and meal-delivery company created by the consolidation of several smaller firms.

OpenTable is the leading subscription services supplier in its field. It claims approximately 1,400 restaurants under contract and adds another 125 or so monthly.

The company said that nearly 60,000 dining consumers have registered to use its Internet site at www.opentable.com.

Despite OpenTable's leadership position, some industry analysts have indicated that the company must broaden its product line and services if it is to attract a critical mass of customers and reach profitability. Possibly addressing such contentions, OpenTable chief executive Jeff Edwards remarked of the ProHost/RSViP deal in a prepared statement, "The acquisition of [this] industry-leading software enables us to deliver an end-to-end solution."



The acquisition was greeted as a positive development by some current ProHost users, including Cheesecake Factory Inc., of Calabasas Hills, Calif., which is currently rolling out the system to all 42 of its ultra-high-volume dinner houses. Cheesecake Factory chief information officer Rick Smith said he spoke with OpenTable about its intentions for ProHost and concluded that the acquisition will mean "additional resources" for continued development of the system.

OpenTable's Edwards said he ultimately envisions a streamlined product portfolio incorporating the best features of his company's proprietary and acquired technology. Until that integration process is complete, however, OpenTable will market and fully support ProHost and RSViP and will offer users of those programs additional online tools for reservations, marketing and yield management, he said.

Edwards said OpenTable will offer ProHost and RSViP to the company's existing customers who feel they can benefit from the technology's sophisticated management features and integration with leading point-of-sale systems.

OpenTable primarily serves high-end independent restaurants, so the acquisition of ProHost and RSViP provides the company with a better foothold in the casino, resort and casual-dining markets, where the two products serve a combined 250 installations.

In terms of functionality and customers, OpenTable's proprietary software and ProHost and RSViP are complementary to each other "with only a real thin line where they overlap," Edwards noted. He added, "Very few of these [acquisitions] are as straight forward and make as much sense as this one."

The acquisition of ProHost and RSViP comes just months after OpenTable secured $43 million in venture capital and reduced its payroll by nearly 24 percent to aid its "drive for profitability." The company's primary competitor, Foodline.com, went bankrupt in December.



ProHost and RSViP were developed by Rock Systems in the early- and mid-90s, respectively, and they helped pioneer computer-aided management of dining-room tables, wait lists and reservations. TGI Friday's was among Rock Systems' earliest customers and development partners.

Wayne Rock, who, along with brothers Curtis and Eric, founded Rock Systems in 1992, accepted an employment offer from OpenTable, Edwards said. He added that other, though not all, Rock Systems/Restaurant Solutions Group employees will be joining OpenTable, which already has a field office in Dallas.

Officials from Ez2get.com were unavailable for comment about what the sale of Rock Systems/Restaurant Solutions Group might mean in terms of the Internet company's future plans. They previously said the company acquired Rock Systems, in large part, because they believed Rock had the technological expertise to create an online reservation service, to help move some phone-and-catalog-based delivery companies online and to integrate the company's online-order interface with restaurant-level point-of-sale systems.