Priceline to Buy OpenTable for $2.6 Billion, Here’s Everything You Need to Know
With companies snatching each other up in hopes of conquering the hospitality industry, the trend continues with Priceline’s acquisition of OpenTable for $2.6 billion in cash. This marks the travel booking site’s first venture into the restaurant reservations business, roping it into its collection of other brands including Booking.com and Kayak.
Here’s everything you need to keep up to speed about this latest move in the growing reservation wars.
The fine print on the deal:
Priceline will offer $103 a share for OpenTable, 46 percent premium to Thursday’s closing price.
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What OpenTable is bringing to the, er, table:
OpenTable seats an average of 15 million patrons a month over 31,000 restaurants. In 2013, the company brought in a revenue of $190 million. Since it was founded in 1998, OpenTable claims to have seated more than 530 million diners. Recently, OpenTable moved into the mobile apps space, enabling patrons to pay for meals via their phones, sans wallet.
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What Priceline made in 2013:
Priceline — which also owns Booking.com and Kayak — books an average of over 1 million guests a night over 480,000 properties across 200 countries. In 2013, the company brought in a revenue of $6.79 billion.
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Priceline has had it’s eye on OpenTable for a while now:
According to the NYT, OpenTable “had long been of interest” to Priceline.
Priceline’s CEO, Darren Huston, said in a statement:
OpenTable is a great match for The Priceline Group. They provide us with a natural extension into restaurant marketing services and a wonderful and highly-valued booking experience for our global customers… We look forward to helping the OpenTable team accelerate their global expansion, increase the value offered to their restaurant partners, and enhance the end-to-end experience for our collective customers across desktop and mobile devices.
If that was #TLDR, basically Priceline wants to dominate the hospitality game, starting with travel and restaurant reservations.
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What this all means for the next time you book a flight:
The Priceline x OpenTable deal will most likely allow travelers to not only book their flight, rental car and hotel, but also make reservations at restaurants in the area via one all-encompassing platform. All through your phone of course. Welcome to the new age of hospitality.
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