Articles tagged “spacs”

It's the latest validation of the subscription model in travel. Inspirato, which has 12,500 customers paying for its luxury travel subscription products, is merging with Thayer's special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

Who said investors no longer want to bet on consumer-facing travel startups that compete with Google? HomeToGo is in talks to go public via a blank-check company owned by Lakestar. It'll be an approximately $1.2 billion deal, sources tell Skift.

Travel companies increasingly looked to go public via SPACs this year, but the exuberance might be short-lived as a slowdown is likely in the U.S. Regulators are already looking into the explosion of activity.

The blank check frenzy may be sweeping up companies such as Sonder that would otherwise have had to wait their turn to go public. It would certainly be an interesting comeback for the quasi-hotel company whose prospects were not looking particularly bright a year ago.

At a time when a travel operator like Expedia Group is shedding brands to become more focused, private equity firm Certares is investing in a broad array of travel assets. Divergent strategies for two very different companies. Certares' goal is likely to wrangle synergies while making a ton of money.

One plus one can equal three sometimes when it comes to spinoffs, especially during the current era where there appears to be an IPO and valuation bubble. Expedia Group seems to be resisting an impulse to spin off Vrbo, let alone Egencia, for now, but the pressure could be substantial.

Some travel sector startups will use special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, to go public, instead of doing traditional IPOs. The trend has the makings of an investor frenzy. Here's our cheat sheet, covered in six questions and answers.

Two blank-check outfits that will try to buy something in travel later debuted on the stock market this week. No Airbnb-style IPO pops, however, because no one knows what the acquirers might score in the travel sector.

If the U.S. Department of Justice indeed takes imminent steps to begin the process of leveling the playing field for Google's travel advertisers and competitors in other verticals, the size of the impact would depend on the specifics. There will be a lot of wrangling — and this could be the beginning of the beginning.

Heads up, struggling booking platforms. A proposed IPO hopes to raise $300 million, and the company's founders may come looking for you. The list of pandemic opportunists grows.