Articles tagged “mergers and acquisitions”

While much of the talk these days is about digital nomads and remote workers, both Expedia Group and Booking Holdings have doubled down on commitments to brick and mortar headquarters. Which could mean that there may be real offices again after the pandemic.

The conventional wisdom in the U.S. and Europe has been that business travel will be slow to recover easing out of the pandemic and that emerging markets in Latin America, such as Brazil, will have a snail-like rebound, too. Travel startup Casai is gambling that both ideas are wrong.

After shutting down or selling eight businesses — some of which were relatively inconsequential — since the beginning of 2020, Expedia Group doesn't expect any more such asset dispositions as part of its drive to make the company simpler and more focused. But selling brands may turn out to be the easiest part of the exercise.

Sqills has won more contracts from railway operators to upgrade their inventory, booking, and ticketing software than any other tech vendor in recent years. So this acquisition makes sense.

Seizing smart, strategic opportunities coming out of the pandemic is top of mind at Hyatt, of course. But the Chicago-based company shouldn’t expect any bargains in its potential European brand hunt. The competition is too fierce.

Serent Capital was an investing chaperone to Revinate's acquisition of Navis. Its thesis is that the technological stars have finally aligned to produce many of the business intelligence breakthroughs that hotel companies have long sought.

Major hotel companies are massive enough. Mergers and acquisitions departments need to think more about smaller, strategic deals rather than mega-takeovers that take tens of billions of dollars and years to integrate companies.

In an intensifying superapp rivalry in Southeast Asia, Gojek handed its Thailand business to AirAsia Digital in the face of competition from Grab. While these leading superapps battle, AirAsia Digital is being taken more seriously. After all, it has airplanes and a profitable logistics business to add to the mix.

While not glamorous, the digitization of bag tagging could help airlines lose fewer pieces of luggage. Paragon, a public tech company, aims to scale up Security Label's business with customers like Air France.

Private equity firm HIG Capital has taken a majority stake in Enseo, a provider of digital in-room entertainment tech for hotels. Enseo plans to grow through acquisition. The deal is a validation of founder and CEO Vanessa Ogle's bold pivot of the tech vendor.