TripAdvisor on Buying Travel Startups: "We Will Continue to Be Acquisitive"
Skift Take
The TripAdvisor CFO says the company has no intent of becoming an online travel agency. But, now that TripAdvisor has introduced Kayak-like hotel metasearch, the question looms whether TripAdvisor will make a large acquisition or two instead of sticking with its traditional penchant for travel startup bargain-hunting.
TripAdvisor acquired five travel startups in the first half of the year, and CFO Julie Bradley, commenting on the company's curious strategy of buying lots of small startups, says there no end in sight.
"I think we will continue to be acquisitive," Bradley said yesterday in remarks to the UBS Best of Americas Conference in London.
In 2013, TripAdvisor acquired TinyPost (photo app), Jetsetter (flash sales), CruiseWise (cruise booking), Niumba (vacation rentals in Spain), and GateGuru (airport information app).
Each of these "small acquisitions" were different," Bradley says, and in sum they "accelerate us to market."
Bradley provided insights into the
