The Priceline Group has announced an agreement to acquire travel meta-search site Momondo in an all-cash transaction worth $550 million.
Momondo Group operates Cheapflights, a flight comparison site, and a search engine for flights, car rentals, and hotels -Momondo. It claims to have over a million people users availing its services across web, mobile and app platforms.
The deal which is expected to close later this year will witness Momondo Group operate under Priceline’s subsidiary Kayak.
Momondo is growing rapidly due to its two-brand strategy aimed at younger, aspirational travelers. The deal price, having the Priceline Group buying all of Momondo Group’s stock, isn’t a huge one compared to Priceline’s acquisition of OpenTable for $2.6 billion in 2014 — but it is the Group’s largest since then. Hugo Burge, CEO of Momondo Group, commented;
The Priceline Group has a proven track record of operating successful, customer-centric travel brands all over the world. We couldn’t be more excited to join such an esteemed group of loved brands and join forces with Kayak to bring the best in meta search to our growing customer bases worldwide.
Priceline Group president and CEO, Glenn Fogel says,
Metasearch is appealing to consumers and we’re keen to expand our global footprint. Momondo and Cheapflights will be nice additions to our meta-portfolio under Kayak.
The deal gives the Priceline Group a head-start in a few of the markets where it has failed to achieve any significant traction over the years, primarily in Europe. He further states,
Momondo and Cheapflights have built great products serving loyal users across Europe. We’re looking forward to learning from them and sharing best practices as our brands expand globally.
Momondo Group has headquarters in the UK and Copenhagen, with offices in Boston. Currently a portfolio company of Great Hill Partners, the Group will be reporting to Kayak CEO Steve Hafner after the acquisition.
