Articles tagged “priceline”

Let the games begin as the Priceline Group's acquisition of OpenTable, and TripAdvisor's acquisition of LaFourchette officially place restaurants firmly in the "travel" space in terms of mindset. Yelp anyone?

Both TripAdvisor and the Pricelne Group plan to feast on the mobile and global expansion of their dining reservations capabilities.

The Priceline Group and OpenTable wanted to sweep away these pesky shareholder lawsuits to get on with the task at hand -- closing the acquisition. In reaching a settlement, OpenTable had to open the curtain a bit more into how it went about conducting the sale process.

While it is exciting to see the consolidation happening in the online travel booking space, the lack of new scaled startups to challenge the biggies remains a worry for anyone. And possibly consumers as well.

Who asked who out? OpenTable kicked off the sale process and approached the Priceline Group about an acquisition via email in mid-April in a process that ultimately involved six other companies. The usual suspects likely expressed interest, and Priceline's initial non-binding bid was first and substantially higher than that of the other bidder.

2014 is turning out to be a consolidation year, with big getting bigger. But there is lots of interesting jostling beyond leaders, and that's where the action will be rest of the year. Airbnb's rise has been spectacular, and will continue to break through on the charts.

The Priceline Group's intent to acquire OpenTable means that merger and acquisition activity in the travel industry in 2014 may even outdo 2013's frenetic pace. Get ready for the next shoe to drop.

Priceline CEO Darren Huston has been aggressive with acquisitions in his short tenure, although it is possible that discussions with OpenTable began with the prior regime. Still, having acquired Kayak for $2.1 billion in 2013, and maneuvering through the pending $2.6 billion buy of OpenTable, Huston probably has his hands full for now.

The Priceline Group? Restaurants? Yes, the agreement to acquire OpenTable is about mobile, and the push by TripAdvisor and now Priceline to fully engage their customers on the go when they are already in a destination -- or when they are traveling for business.

The Priceline Group's culture is fairly buttoned up so the company wouldn't think about doing Airbnb-style apartment rentals at this juncture, but if the legal hassles eventually get sorted out, then Priceline would take a hard look.