As part of Opentable‘s global expansion, this US real-time online reservation network announced that it agreed to buy toptable.com, a UK-based restaurant reservation website,  for $55 million.  The deal is expected to settle by the last quarter of the year.

Opetnable is one of the many companies that are trying to springboard to globalization and getting in to targeted advertising being a rapidly growing hyperlocal trend.  There has been a pick-up of mergers and acquisitions going on in the technology sector, an ever-expanding trend.

For OpenTable, the acquisition presents an extended form of international monetization, with increased access to a number of localized markets.  Services like OpenTable have a unique consumer niche, developing profiles around preferences and presenting advertising opportunities within these hyperlocal pools.  Restaurant-related services are particularly keen on this within the mobile industry, with new advertising methods being able to hit consumers at the point-of-purchase.