'China's Groupon' Meituan and Yelp-like Dianping likely to merge to create country’s biggest O2O services provider

Meituan.com and Dianping Holdings, two of China’s biggest tech start-ups, are close to merging and the two former rivals will announce a deal in the next few days, according to media reports.
If Meituan, dubbed “China’s Groupon” and restaurant-review site Dianping are set to team up - as The Wall Street Journal and China's largest news portal Sina.com claim – they would create the country’s biggest online-to-offline (O2O) services provider with a combined value of over US$15 billion.
The deal seems prudent as it comes not only at a time of industry consolidation in China but will also help both partners out financially as O2O companies tend to burn cash due to their reliance on heavy subsidies and discounts to outspend their rivals.
The move follows other landmark deals in China’s tech sector in the last couple of years.