 | |
Press Releases
Expedia, Inc. Expands Corporate Travel Offerings into Europe
Expedia Purchases Egencia, a Leading European Online Corporate Travel Management Company
PARIS and BELLEVUE, Wash. – March 29, 2004 – Expedia, Inc., the world’s leading online travel service, today announced its acquisition of Egencia, an online corporate travel management company with operations in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. By pairing Egencia’s European corporate travel services with the existing Expedia® Corporate Travel offerings in the U.S., Expedia takes a clear step towards building a truly global online corporate travel management solution.
“The addition of Egencia will jump-start the expansion of Expedia’s corporate travel offerings into Europe,” said Simon Breakwell, president of IAC Travel, Europe. “They bring European-specific corporate travel expertise, a stellar management team and a shared passion for making customers’ lives better through technology and high-touch service.”
The Egencia and Expedia® Corporate Travel teams will work closely together to bring a fully integrated offering to their clients. Moving forward, Egencia will operate as Expedia® Corporate Travel Europe within the IAC Travel Europe structure.
“The Expedia® Corporate Travel model of combining full-service travel management with world-class technology has proven successful in the U.S., with more than 1100 actively booking companies and an adoption rate of greater than 80 percent for online transactions,” said Matt Hulett, president, Expedia® Corporate Travel. “Egencia shares our commitment to this approach, and is ideally suited for expanding it across Europe.”
As Expedia Corporate Travel Europe, Egencia will continue to provide corporate travel services to existing clients, and expand its client base. "Egencia has succeeded by blending technology solutions with a high level of service for our clients," said Jean-Pierre Remy, president of Egencia. "Expedia is a perfect fit for us, and the combined strength of our companies will allow us to bring our shared vision of creating a global full-service online corporate travel management solution to life.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in April.
About Egencia Egencia is a leading online corporate travel management company in Europe. It provides companies of all sizes with complete solutions for managing and optimizing their travel budgets. Egencia combines best of breed technology with top-quality service to enrich travel management and ease reservations. Founded in February 2000, Egencia has offices in France, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
About Expedia® Corporate Travel
Expedia® Corporate Travel is a full-service travel management company operated by Expedia, Inc. Expedia® Corporate Travel brings together the best of technology and corporate support in a single-source solution that drives down costs. Business travelers have access to specialized tools, while companies can take advantage of rich management and reporting features. About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. is the world’s leading online travel service and the fourth largest travel agency in the U.S. Expedia’s award-winning Expert Searching and Pricing (ESP) technology delivers the most comprehensive flight options available online. ESP also allows customers to dynamically build complete trips that combine flights, Expedia® Special Rate hotels and other lodging, ground transportation, and destination activities. Expedia operates Classic Custom Vacations®, a leading distributor of premier vacation packages to destinations such as Hawaii, Mexico, Europe and the Caribbean; and Expedia® Corporate Travel, a full-service corporate travel agency. Expedia, Inc.'s wholly owned subsidiary, Travelscape, Inc., operates WWTE™, bringing complementary cross-sell and dynamic packaging booking functionality to third parties on a private-label basis. Expedia can be found on the Web at www.expedia.com. Expedia is a wholly owned subsidiary of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI). CST: 2029030-40