Articles tagged “m&a”

Tablet Hotels found itself a world-class strategic buyer to propel its growth. Tablet as part of Michelin will face huge marketing hurdles, and the challenge of trying to reshape Michelin's legacy guide offerings.

The potential to scale Bartaco is huge for Del Frisco, given the concept's high profit margins. But if the CEO sees the 18-unit taco chain becoming a 300-unit behemoth in the future, it's going to take a lot of smart real estate decisions to get there.

The biggest knock on the online travel agencies these days is that the competition is intense and that their golden years are done. Expedia's Mark Okerstrom counters that his company has a single-digit share of a $1.6 trillion market, and he's going wide and deep to pick up more. The jury is still out.

An Expedia acquisition of Thomas Cook? While problematic on many fronts, including buying all of those offline agents, it isn't out of the question. Consider that Expedia would gain access to a customer base in Europe that it hardly touches. Expedia's Barry Diller has made a ton of acquisitions. He and Okerstrom are hardly done yet.

The deal, which just closed, provides some insight into both Grubhub and LevelUp’s businesses, but it says even more about the future of restaurant technology.

RedAwning's acquisition of Leavetown suggests that marketing and distribution technology built separately for rentals and hotels may one day blend into all-purpose software for all types of lodging.

Booking sites are offering more types of travel products and services on their platforms. Of these verticals, alternative accommodations are a highly contested space where Booking and Airbnb lead for now.

Don't you just love those proverbial tuck-in acquisitions? Booking Holdings didn't break the bank for either HotelsCombined ($140 million) or FareHarbor ($250 million). Sometimes making smaller bets is a much smarter strategy than gargantuan deals, but only time will tell.

The acquisitions of Active Hotels and Bookings B.V., which led to the creation of Booking.com, transformed parent company Priceline.com, and online travel history. Take a look at Priceline's fourth quarter of 2005 financial results, and you'll be able to see the journey in process.

The stars were seemingly aligned when Booking.com made its move. The big U.S. players were too comfortable with their huge margins from the merchant model; Booking.com focused on independent hotels; and search engine marketing was on the rise. Still, it was the entrepreneurs and dealmakers who made it all happen.