Predominantly, a company acquire another company for their expertise or to maintain relevance at the ever-emerging market with competitive threats. Having said that, there might tons of other reasons to acquire companies as well just like Secret Escape’s latest acquisition of TravelBird.
Secret Escapes acquisition!
A few days back, British online travel group Secret Escapes has announced the acquisition of TravelBird including the intellectual property, the IT platform, the Travelbird brand, the logos and the customer base. The acquisition was eventually announced after the online travel platform, Travel Bird completely suspended its operation and declared financial insolvency.
Notably, both the parties were in talks already, about an acquisition deal but Secret Escapes declined it the last moment after identifying the situation. The UK-based company managed a considerably more profitable deal than what was discussed in October, at least that’s what we expect.
TravelBird website is up and running!
In the recent development, Secret Escapes Group has announced it has restarted the working of TravelBird website. According to the company, the website will operate alongside the Group’s other brands including Secret Escapes, Travelist and Slevomat.
Alex Saint, Founder and Chief Executive of Secret Escapes Group, said:
“I am delighted that we have relaunched the website so quickly with lots of inspiring travel deals immediately available for TravelBird’s customers. This is just the beginning, and we will continue to develop our offers, working with more suppliers to create a broad range of exciting travel ideas at incredible prices.”
Fierce loss, negative operating margin and bankruptcy!
Earlier this month, TravelBird has announced it has suspended its operations and declared financial distress. They also posted a message on their official website stating it has to quit its operations as it failed to attract further funding to pay its suppliers.
Furthermore, a Dutch business blog 925.nl’s Arno Wellens disclosed the negative operational margin of the startup in addition to the already facing fierce losses. This mounting situation predicted the that TravelBird could file for bankruptcy as its losses are piling up.
Heads up: TravelBird
For the uninitiated, TravelBird is an online travel platform that offers competitively priced holiday deals. Founded by Dennis Klompalberts and Symen Jansma in 2010, TravelBird operated in 12 countries serving 15,000 travelers every day. TravelBird has raised a total of $24.3M in funding over 3 rounds with their latest funding on Sep 21, 2016, from a Debt Financing round.
Heads up: Secret Escapes
The UK-based Secret Escapes is an exclusive members-only travel club offering discounted rates on luxury hand-picked hotels and holidays in the UK. Founded by Alex Saint, Andrew Bredon, Tom Valentine, and, Troy Collins, this London-based company has raised a total of $246.5M in funding over 8 rounds.
We often hear about the “win-win” situation, and this is one of the best examples. With this deal, both the company ensured their own success, but at some cost though. We hope in future, this merger will strategically get together to create a product or service that would benefit the customer.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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