Lanny Baker to Step Down as CFO of Yelp

With support from leading recruitment firm Russell Reynolds Associates, the Board and management team have initiated a search for a new CFO to help the company execute on its long-term plan to accelerate growth, expand profitability, and increase shareholder value.

“Lanny has put in place a strong financial discipline that has helped us to grow Yelp to nearly $1 billion in annual revenue, while significantly increasing profit, and returning more than $600 million to shareholders,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “His numerous contributions have helped lay the foundation for accelerating revenue growth and continued margin expansion in the years to come. I am confident in the strong finance team that Lanny helped cultivate and we appreciate the role he has played in positioning Yelp for long-term success. We wish him all the best in his next endeavor.”

Miln, who currently leads Financial Planning and Analysis at Yelp, brings to the role more than a decade of leadership experience spanning financial planning, business analysis, and investor relations at large publicly traded companies including eBay, Yahoo!, and Unilever.

“I am incredibly thankful to have been part of such an exceptional team over the past three and a half years, a time in which Yelp has executed a number of transformative steps in its growth strategy,” said Lanny Baker. “The next stage of Yelp’s development is now solidly underway, and as I move on to pursue my next opportunity, I have complete confidence that Yelp has the strategy and team in place to capture the enormous opportunities ahead of it.”

Yelp today separately announced its second quarter 2019 financial results today and will host a conference call at 2:00 pm Pacific Time (5:00 pm Eastern Time) to discuss the results.

About Yelp

Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos and review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover, connect, and transact with local businesses of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist, and make a reservation, appointment, or purchase. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004.

Yelp intends to make future announcements of material financial and other information through its Investor Relations website. Yelp will also, from time to time, disclose this information through press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, conference calls, or webcasts, as required by applicable law.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, Yelp’s future performance that are based on its current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include the statements regarding Yelp’s expected revenue growth, plans to drive long-term growth, and the success and timing of Baker’s transition from Yelp.

Yelp’s actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, Yelp’s:

• limited operating history in an evolving industry;
• ability to generate sufficient revenue to maintain profitability, particularly in light of its significant ongoing sales and marketing expenses;
• ability to generate and maintain sufficient high-quality content from its users; and
• ability to maintain and expand its base of advertisers, particularly as an increasing portion of advertisers have the ability to cancel their advertising campaigns at any time.