Skyscanner's First Venture Funding Since 2007 Came After Priceline Took A Look
Skift Take
With Skyscanner's new funding and ample cash, the company sees itself as an acquirer over the next few months. Skyscanner believes a few modest acquisitions, increased marketing, and continued organic growth should do the trick. There won't be any quick, easy answers as this looks like a strategy for the long haul.
With news that Skyscanner attracted $192 million in venture funding, its first since 2007, Skift has learned from sources that the Priceline Group recently took a hard look at acquiring the Scotland-based flight-metasearch company and walked away.
Skyscanner CFO Shane Corstorphine declined to comment on the report, as did a spokesperson for the Priceline Group.
That the Priceline Group would consider acquiring Skyscanner is not a shocker given the fact that since Expedia went on an acquisition tear in 2014 and 2015, acquiring Wotif, Travelocity, Orbitz Worldwide, and HomeAway, there are a paucity of attractive acquisition targets on the market with perhaps the exception of a pricey TripAdvisor.
It also isn't difficult to imagine Priceline being ultimately uninterested in Skyscanner given Booking.com's sole focus on lodging and the fact that Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston isn't a huge fan of metasearch. Priceline's $2.1 billion acquisition of Kayak in 2013 took place before Huston became Group CEO, although he was, and still is, CEO of Booking.com at the time.
New Strategy
Skyscanner's new $192 million investment, which saw Goldman Sachs and Numis Securities acting as financial ad
