AmEx to buy dining reservation company Tock from Squarespace for £316m

American Express will acquire the dining reservation and event management platform Tock from Squarespace for 400 million dollars (£316 million) cash.

AmEx began making acquisitions in the dining and event sector with its purchase of Resy five years ago, giving card members access to hard-to-get restaurants and locations.

Other credit card issues have done the same. JP Morgan acquired The Infatuation as a lifestyle brand in 2021.

Tock, which launched in Chicago in 2014 and has been owned by Squarespace since 2021, provides reservation and table management services to roughly 7,000 restaurants and other venues.

Restaurants signed up with Tock include Aquavit, the high end Nordic restaurant in New York, as well as new restaurant Chez Noir in California.

Squarespace and Tock confirmed the deal on Friday.

AmEx’s purchase of Resy five years ago raised eyebrows in both the credit card and dining industries, but it has become a key part of how the company locks in high-end businesses to be either AmEx-exclusive merchants, or ones that give preferential treatment to AmEx card members.

The number of restaurants on the Resy platform has grown five-fold since AmEx purchased the company.

AmEx also announced on Friday it would buy Rooam, a contactless payment platform that is used heavily in stadiums and other entertainment venues.

AmEx did not disclose how much it was paying for Rooam.