Articles tagged “mergers and acquisitions”

BWH Hotel Group? That's Best Western's new corporate identity, the first change in decades and one that is designed to build its new image as a chain that can offer everything from mid-market to luxury.

Investor 777 Partners has bought tech company Air Black Box, while online agency Kiwi has taken a stake in reservation system AeroCRS. These deals hint at a growing interest among airlines to use tech to build marketing alliances that differ from traditional codeshares. The true winner may be smaller airports, which stand to gain traffic.

On the surface, HotelTonight got a lowish deal from Airbnb. But with roughly half in stock, the price tag could look very upbeat if Airbnb's stock soars in an initial public offering.

Will Airbnb stick to its boutique and independent-only stance on hotels? It could put it at a serious disadvantage when it comes to competitors like Booking or Expedia in the long run. But if Airbnb winds up offering a wider swath of hotels, it could boost its brand even further. Either way, it's guaranteed to be interesting. We'll get the popcorn ready.

The combined Certify and Chrome River still pales in scope when compared to global behemoth SAP Concur. The approach of offering a variety of different services instead of a single platform, though, has potential in a fragmented global market for expense software services.

Expedia is an opportunistic company, and mergers and acquisitions are part of its DNA. The company has been quiet on this front for the past three years. It is sort of due to make another big splash.

Shiji, the tech conglomerate with an investment from Alibaba, continues to snap up companies in a bid for hotel tech supremacy. It has nabbed IcePortal in the wake of that company's arch-rival Leonardo being snatched up last November by tech conglomerate Jonas.

InterContinental Hotel Group’s purchase of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas is consistent with its drive to boost its luxury portfolio with small yet well-defined brands that do not cannibalize one another. So smart.

Mixing business with friendship can be a risky thing but it sounds like the prospective new owners of Abercrombie & Kent share the same views on luxury travel.

Travel Tripper is taking on a distressed asset, Pegasus. Meh. But what's interesting is that Accel-KKR is backing the deal. The support by the private equity firm is yet another sign of more rollups of hotel tech companies to come against a backdrop of hotel software investments by Amadeus, Sabre, and Shiji.