Amex Buys Tock to Help With Hard-to-Get Dinner Reservations

(Bloomberg) -- American Express Co. agreed to acquire Tock for $400 million from Squarespace Inc., adding a service that helps customers book dining and other hard-to-get reservations at exclusive venues.

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Tock, which provides reservations, table management and event ticketing to around 7,000 restaurants and other entertainment outlets, complements Amex’s Resy business, a 2019 acquisition. Tock is known for catering to high-end restaurants, including New York City hot spots Per Se and Jean-Georges, and posh events including a recent listing for a farm-to-table dinner on Governors Island.

Restaurant are a major spending category for Amex customers, exceeding $100 billion in volume last year, Howard Grosfield, president of US consumer services, said in a statement Friday. The acquisitions of Tock and mobile-payments company Rooam, which was also announced Friday, will enhance that business while also providing other avenues for Amex to provide its wealthier customers more experiences and opportunities for rewards. The purchases will also drive more customers to restaurants and venues, which are key partners for Amex.

“It gives restaurants and merchants more unique tools in one place to help them run their business and connect with more premium diners,” Grosfield said in an interview.

Amex has for years courted higher-spending consumers and more recently shifted its growth strategy to attract millennial and Gen Z customers with its lifestyle brand panache. Acquisitions such as Tock and Rooam respond directly to customer wants at a time when dining reservations are harder than ever to come by in major destinations.

Rooam, founded in 2015, runs mobile payments, ordering and integrations with point-of-sale, marketing and loyalty systems used by restaurants and venues. Terms of that deal weren’t disclosed.

Restaurants rely on many different technologies to run their businesses, Grosfield said.

“What Rooam does, it connects all of those services or technologies and makes it easier for the restaurant to work together,” he said.

(Updates with context throughout, starting in second paragraph.)

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