Articles tagged “mergers and acquisitions”

Major hotel companies are massive enough. Mergers and acquisitions departments need to think more about smaller, strategic deals rather than mega-takeovers that take tens of billions of dollars and years to integrate companies.

In an intensifying superapp rivalry in Southeast Asia, Gojek handed its Thailand business to AirAsia Digital in the face of competition from Grab. While these leading superapps battle, AirAsia Digital is being taken more seriously. After all, it has airplanes and a profitable logistics business to add to the mix.

While not glamorous, the digitization of bag tagging could help airlines lose fewer pieces of luggage. Paragon, a public tech company, aims to scale up Security Label's business with customers like Air France.

Private equity firm HIG Capital has taken a majority stake in Enseo, a provider of digital in-room entertainment tech for hotels. Enseo plans to grow through acquisition. The deal is a validation of founder and CEO Vanessa Ogle's bold pivot of the tech vendor.

Sabre wins from the sale of tech vendor Airpas because it represents more progress in a multi-year streamlining of its portfolio. The airline industry might also win if Airpas's new merger with another tech company represents a wave of better cost management tools.

VTrips all but outright says that it's more profitable than its larger rival Vacasa. But we'll only know for sure if they both file to go public.

Awaze is arguably Europe's largest vacation-rentals business for managed properties. While its acquisitions this week are eye-catching, the bigger news is that it's spending roughly $40 million this year on a tech push. That will help it make better use of its assets.

Hornblower's acquisition of Walks and Lindblad's takeover of DuVine are great case studies. They show how young companies can land well even in times of crisis. The lessons ought to resonate across the travel sector.

Booking.com faces tough-going in U.S. short-term rentals. Its business model has hosts perceiving they pay lower commissions to Airbnb, and the latter is has a big brand advantage. At the same time, Booking.com needs to defend Airbnb incursions on its own European turf.

Airlines have been shaking up how they sell and distribute their airfares and ancillaries. Priceline is one of a few brands striving to keep pace through acquisitions or research and development.