TripAdvisor Is a Smart Acquisition for Someone Right Now
Photo Credit: TripAdvisor's Instant Booking product has hotel partners including Marriott International. Frame
Skift Take
Buying TripAdvisor would be a very large -- albeit relatively cheap -- acquisition given its current stock price. One very significant impediment, especially for Priceline, is the fact that Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, which has historic ties to Barry Diller's Expedia, controls TripAdvisor. Still, for the right price, Liberty would have to consider a sale of its prized asset as TripAdvisor goes through a very challenging and prolonged transition.
Nearly three months after we wrote that it would make sense for the Priceline Group to acquire TripAdvisor, speculation about TripAdvisor getting acquired is heating up.
In fact, Goldman Sachs reportedly opined in a research note this week about potential travel and non-travel acquisition targets that there is a 10-30 percent chance that TripAdvisor gets scooped up by another company.
Much of the speculation hinges around the fact that TripAdvisor's stock, which opened at $65.43 yesterday, is considerably down from its 52-week high of $94 per share. In other words, TripAdvisor's market cap stands at around $9.4 billion -- or more than $4 billion less than on July 23, 2015 so an acquisition of the world's largest travel site by traffic would be relatively cheap.
One of the reasons we think TripAdvisor could benefit from an acquisition -- especially by the Priceline Group
