Why Expedia Will Eventually Acquire Travelocity Outright
Photo Credit: The Gnome is about to go away, once and for all. Travelocity
Skift Take
Travelocity talked years ago about getting into the advertising and media business in a big way, but never made it happen. But, now Expedia has grand plans to use Travelocity's North America sites as a platform to expanding Expedia's own advertising and media business in tandem with the jolt that Trivago is already providing.
Expedia Inc. reported its first quarter results and outlined the positive impact of its new Travelocity partnership on air ticket and room night growth, but Expedia essentially finds itself in an untenable position over the long term, and will likely end up acquiring Travelocity outright at some point.
Travelocity.com, the U.S. site, was migrated to the Expedia technology platform in the first quarter, and Travelocity.ca, the Canadian site, did likewise this week.
Expedia reported that the Travelocity partnership contributed 18 percentage points to Expedia's air ticket growth in the first quarter, and Travelocity also chipped in 3 percentage points to Expedia's 24% hotel room-night growth.
But, as Expedia ramps up the Travelocity partnership in North America, and optimizes it, one of its big problems is that the partnership's su
