EU: Priceline wins approval for US$550m acquisition

Priceline Group Inc.’s US$550 million bid to buy rival online travel search site Momondo Group Ltd. got a green light July 17 from the EU’s Competition Commission (EC), which said the deal did not raise competitive concerns.

The EC unconditionally approved the deal, saying that the travel search companies’ operations are largely complementary and that the merged company will still face stiff competition from other big sites such as Skyscanner Ltd., Trivago NV, TripAdvisor Inc., and Google Inc.

Priceline announced the merger in February, proposing to fold Momondo’s metasearch capabilities into its existing Kayak unit.

The EU assessed the merger’s impact on metasearch sites in the European Economic Area. Travel metasearch sites allow travelers to search for and compare travel products using results from other search engines.

The EC “also examined a number of vertical relationships arising from the merging companies’ activities in the operation of metasearch sites and their activities in operating online travel agents downstream,” according to the EU’s statement on the deal.

Full Content: Bloomberg BNA

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