Monday, December 31, 2012

Expedia Buys Majority Stake In European Hotel Search Site Trivago For $632 Million

Expedia Buys Majority Stake In European Hotel Search Site Trivago For $632 Million: trivago
Online travel giant Expedia announced this morning that it will acquire a majority stake in Trivago, the Dusseldorf, Germany-based hotel search and price comparison site.
In a regulatory filing, Expedia said it will pay a total of about €477 million Euro, which is approximately $632 million in US dollars, in exchange for a 61.6 percent share of Trivago. €434 million of the deal is in cash, and €43 million is in Expedia stock. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2013, pending regulatory approval.
Expedia, which is traded on the NASDAQ stock market, has a valuation of approximately $8 billion.
It’s a very good turnout for Trivago, which was founded seven years ago and has grown into an extremely popular — and profitable — hotel room search site for the European market and beyond. Trivago operates in 30 countries and expects to exceed €100 million in net revenue for 2012, according to a press release issued regarding the Expedia deal.
Today’s deal also seems to show a nice boost in valuation for the company since its last funding round. In the spring of 2011, Trivago sold a 25 percent stake to late-stage venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners for a reported €40 million – that’s an overall valuation of €160 million Euro. Today’s stake sale valued the entire company at nearly €800 million.


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