According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com), Yelp’s CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman, has indicated in an interview that the private company has decided to not seek another round of private funding in the belief that they will get the best valuation from the public markets even with the current high valuations being assigned to some tech leaders in the private markets. The seven-year-old start-up is actively looking to hire a new chief financial officer with public company experience to guide it through the process, Mr. Stoppelman confirmed. Yelp’s search for a new CFO was previously reported by AllThingsD’s Tricia Duryee.

In January, 2010, Yelp raised $25 million in a series E round of funding, stating at the time it was not likely to go public for “several years”. According to people familiar with the matter, Yelp had received buyout offers prior to the series E round from both Google and Yahoo for approximately $500 million.

“We could raise another private round and push it off, but I don’t see any reason to do that,” Mr. Stoppelman said. “Our existing model feels like a stable platform.” Yelp, which claims 50 million visitors a month across its website and mobile application, “has not yet announced profitability,” he says. Almost all of the company’s revenue is generated through advertising from local businesses.

Mr. Stoppelman has not indicated exactly when the company plans to go public but has stated that the process “hasn’t yet officially started”.