Travel oligopoly marches on
Travel giant Cendant, having just swallowed US e-travel site Orbitz as well as European travel site ebookers.com, now has snatched up the UK's Gullivers Travel Associates and Octopus Travel Group for $1.1 billion. Gullivers is a wholesaler of group tours and travel packagers. OctopusTravel.com, owned by Gullivers, is an online travel site. Cendant is funding the purchase through the sale of its Wright Express fleet management operations.
Meanwhile, Barry Diller plans to break up InterActive Corp. (IAC) by spinning off its online travel service (Expedia, Hotwire, Hotels,com, etc,) The remaining company will consist of such pieces as LendingTree, Ticketmaster, and CitySearch.
According to a Wall Street Journal article ("Diller is Planning to Break Up IAC", 12/21/2004) the main reason was to "put an end to the confusion surrounding the company's 42 separate businesses and ultimately boost the company's overall valuation." As each of the operating units grow and the online business booms, there is a need to break up what was becoming a hard-to-manage conglomerate into stronger, more focused companies.
8:35:12 PM 
|
|
