EU: Expedia, Tui continue travel market mergers

Expedia.com announced plans to acquire European car rental company Auto Escape Group, a deal that continues a trend of recent mergers in the travel booking industry.

Auto Escape will become part of the CarRentals.com brand, reports say, which is owned by Hotwire Group, which is run by Expedia. In a statement, Hotwire said it is “excited” to expand its car rental operations into an international market.

The companies did not disclose terms of the transaction, but the companies said they expect to close the deal in the third quarter of this year.

The buyout follows recent travel service mergers including Priceline’s acquisition of OpenTable and Kayak, TripAdvisor’s buyout of LaFourchette, and Expedia’s earlier acquisition of Trivago.

Tui merger

In a separate deal, Germany-based travel planning service Tui announced it plans to merge with UK subsidiary Tui Travel, confirming years of speculation that the two would eventually combine.

While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Tui said the transaction would lead to about $61 million in cost savings every year.

The merged firm will maintain its listing on the London Stock Exchange but be headquartered in Germany, reports say.

The deal follows a collapse of similar negotiations between the companies last year.

Full content: Skift and BBC

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