Cendant, the major US travel and hotel conglomerate, has agreed to pay £209m for the European online travel agency ebookers.
The deal, announced last week, comes after four months of rumour and speculation that the US giant, which already owns leading GDS Galileo, car rental brands Avis and Budget, hotel chains Days Inn and Ramada and Orbitz, a major US online agency, was looking to snap up a European online agency.
Ebookers was originally founded as a travel agency in 1980 by Dinesh Dhamija, now its chairman, ceo and major shareholder, but flourished as an online agency in the 1990s. It has websites serving 13 countries in Europe and a strong air content on its sites.
Mr Dhamija, who will receive £87m from the sale of his shareholding, will become a consultant to the new owners.
Gordon Wilson, managing director for Cendant Travel Distribution Services (TDS) International Markets division, said: “This is a clear example of TDS delivering on its stated strategy of integrating its travel assets throughout the distribution chain to become a multi-channel distributor of the richest travel inventory.
“We are looking forward to working closely with ebookers' outstanding team to build on their considerable achievements.”
He later comfirmed that Cendant TDS saw ebookers as another good distribution channel for their hotel content and as a chance to get more firmly into short haul.
It is likely that ebookers will also switch from its current GDS Amadeus to the Cendant-owned Galileo.
The purchase also confirms Cendant is making a serious play for the growing but still small European online market. Online sales in Europe account for around 10% of the total sales compared with 30% in the US.