Skift Take
Marriott dueled with a U.S. hotel company, probably Hyatt, and a foreign one, for Starwood. In the end, Starwood liked Marriott's financial proposal, management and bigness.
The Starwood sales process, which kicked off April 29 at the urging of some of the hotel chain's shareholders, involved 30 U.S. or foreign hotels or investment groups that reached out or were contacted, while Marriott International ultimately took home the grand prize in November for $12.2 billion.
Of those 30 parties, the scorecard reads like this: 10 expressed interest in a combination with Starwood while seven, including Marriott, signed confidentiality agreements, according to a Marriott-Starwood filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
As the Marriott-Starwood agreement neared its completion, a U.S.-based lodging company (possibly Hyatt and referred to as Company E) came the closest to stealing Marriott's prize and actually outbid Marriott. And a foreign lodging company (potentially InterContinental Hotels Group and referred to as Company D) was in the running until about 10 days before the Marriott-Starwood deal announcement November 16. Bloomberg reported in early November that InterContinental Hotels Group was exploring a sale or merger.
Along the way, in August, Starwood considered acquiring a foreign lodging company (Company K) that had put itself up for sale but the company informed Starwood that the price range that Starwood was considering was considerably below the foreign lodging company's expectations.
The Path to the Deal
One of the more interesting aspects of the path to the deal is that from April through October -- about six months -- Mar
