Tencent Securities News according to foreign media reports, the US consumer review website Yelp was forced by a major shareholder, hedge fund SQN Investors LP, on Wednesday local time, who called for comprehensive reforms to boost the stock price and asked other investors to join their ranks.

SQN Investors LP currently holds more than 4 per cent of Yelp and is one of the company's top five shareholders. If Yelp were to be sold to a private equity firm immediately, the board could get an offer of $47-$50 a share, a 36-45 per cent premium to the current price, the agency said. If the company is sold to strategic acquirers, it may also generate a higher premium.

"timing is very important." SQN Investors LP, a hedge fund based in Redwood City, Calif., wrote in a report.

Yelp's existing board of directors is out of date and no new members have been added since May 2012. We believe that the existing board does not hold CEO accountable for the company's changing strategy, missed opportunities and poorly executed mistakes. Moreover, Yelp's unfriendly governance structure severely limits the ability of shareholders to seek recourse. "

SQN Investors LP also pointed out in its report that Yelp shares have underperformed the Russell 2000 Technology Index by 117 per cent over the past five years and underperformed their peers by 74 per cent. In addition, Yelp has underperformed investors' expectations in 12 of the past 19 quarters.

"shareholders must take advantage of this opportunity to replace three of Yelp's existing eight directors with candidates not designated by the existing board in 2019, and the new board should also include shareholder representatives."

In response to SQN Investors LP's request, San Francisco-based Yelp said in a statement that "the company's board of directors and management team are focused on taking action to implement our established strategy to achieve sustained, long-term growth and create shareholder value."

Yelp is willing to listen to different ideas and opinions from investors, including SQN Investors LP. We would also like to meet with representatives of SQN to listen to their views on some of the issues that have been raised before. In fact, all of these issues have been discussed in the board committee before, but we will still evaluate the latest requests made by SQN. "

"the company looks forward to further contact with SQN founder Amish Mehta so that we can further assess his views as well as those of other investors," Yelp said.

In addition, Yelp revealed that the company's board of directors, nominations and corporate governance committees are "evaluating their board composition and identifying additional board candidates to help advance the company's strategy, with the support of a nationally renowned director headhunter." (drew)