Articles tagged “m&a”

The smartest travel companies are beginning to buy startups that may not be central to their main businesses or help them consolidate market share, but could boost the innovation metabolism of their motherships.

HNA Group's decision to at least consider selling its stake in NH Hotels shouldn't come as a surprise. It will be interesting to see whether one of the big hotel companies emerges as a potential buyer.

Combining NH Hotels with another company makes plenty of sense. It would give it added scale and might also help put an end to its shareholder infighting. Of course this is only the opening move in what is likely to be a time-consuming process and given NH's recent history we're sure that it will be anything but straightforward.

VizEat's business has gotten stronger with this acquisition. But it still faces an uphill slog to expand its total addressable market beyond travelers to include locals looking for activities, especially in Asia.

Cruise.co's mix of reviews and vacations has helped fuel its rise. Its private equity owners obviously want it to get even bigger and to do so it needs to buy up the competition.

Even with rumours circulating of an overseas spending clampdown, it looks like Chinese investors will continue to play a big role in the shape of the global hospitality industry in 2017.

Ctrip’s acquisition of Skyscanner marks the next phase of consolidation in the metasearch industry. The premium valuation paid by Ctrip is well-timed for Expedia’s pending Trivago IPO.

There's been some drama related to Alaska's proposed acquisition of Virgin America, but many industry insiders still expect the deal to get done. And Alaska executives remain publicly confident that they will get their prize. The big question is when.

With so many startups focusing on specific niches of the travel market, we will continue to see more acquisitions of small companies by small companies as competition consolidates.

Translation technology has improved significantly in the past few years and recent developments suggest that the functionality will soon be closely integrated into travelers' most used devices.