Expedia completes Orbitz acquisition

Expedia has completed its acquisition of Orbitz Worldwide.

The deal, which includes all of Orbitz’s brands and assets, is valued at approximately US$1.6 billion. As a result of the transaction, Orbitz stock is no longer being traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

“We are pleased to welcome Orbitz Worldwide to our family of leading travel brands,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia’s CEO. “Our mission is to revolutionise travel through the power of technology. Given Orbitz’s focus on transforming the way consumers around the world plan and book travel, we couldn’t be more aligned.

“As we bring our talented teams and capabilities together, we will be well positioned to accelerate the pace of innovation to deliver even better customer experiences to Orbitz’s loyal customer base and to further enhance the marketing and distribution capabilities we offer to our global supply partners,” he added.

The Expedia-Orbitz merger was originally announced in February 2015 and will see all of Orbitz’s online travel brands, including Orbitz.com brand, CheapTickets, ebookers and HotelClub, plus the business-to-business Orbitz Partner Network and Orbitz for Business units, become part of the Expedia portfolio.

This marks the latest stage in Expedia’s expansion-through-acquisitions strategy. The US-based online travel giant has also snapped up Travelocity and Wotif.com in recent years, and acquired an extra 25% stake in AAE Travel, its joint venture with AirAsia.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia