Skift Take
Expedia seems to be on a sensible course in 2016 as it seeks to make good on its 2015 buying binge. Acquisitions are the sexy part; now Expedia has to make the marriages work behind closed doors.
For Expedia Inc. last year might be considered the easy part since the company, as CFO Mark Okerstrom put it, was "able to check off some big want-to haves" by acquiring Travelocity, Orbitz Worldwide, HomeAway and some others for more than $6 billion.
"We are always opportunistic," Okerstrom said in an interview with Skift last month. "The M & A (mergers & acquisitions) team is never closed for business. Listen, we are always on the hunt for interesting opportunities and we're fortunate to have an incredibly strong core business, which gives us the confidence to go out and do some of these acquisitions that are a little bit more intensive."
In this third article in a three-part series, Challenges in Travel Booking 2016, Skift examines company-specific issues confronting three major online travel players, TripAdvisor, the Priceline Group and Expedia, in the coming year. To find the stories in the series click here.
While Expedia personnel will keep searching for interesting merger and acquisitions opportunities, the company will also be consumed in 2016 with doing the grunt work, integrating Orbitz Worldwide, HomeAway and their respective brands into the Expedia fold.
"I think this year you're going to see both," Okerstrom said. "It's not going to be an either/or in terms of hunker down or look for acquisitions. We are going to be very focused internally on getting HomeAway to deliver on that $350 million 2018 adjusted EBITDA number" and most of the Orbitz and sister brand CheapTickets traffic has already been pushed onto the Expedia technology platform.
"Things are looking good so far but we're going to continue on that path," Okerstrom said. "We're going to keep our eyes open for other deals. Whether we're going to have another year of doing $6 billion-plus of strategic acquisitions? I think that's unlikely
