Weekly NewsletterTravel website Orbitz has been sold to Cendant Corp. Orbitz had formerly been controversially owned by a consortium of US airlines. This gives the airlines a nice $1.2 billion cash sum that they desperately need, and makes Orbitz the second largest travel provider on the internet. Expedia is the largest with 49% market share, then Cendant's combined operations with 22% and Travelocity is now number 3 with 20%.
That leaves just 9% for everyone else - so much for the internet making it easy for little guys to compete with the big guys!.
You might not be familiar with the Cendant name. Here's a list of companies they own : Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Ramada Inn, Super 8, Travelodge, Villager, Wingate Inn, Hotel Dynamics, Fairfield Resorts, RCI, Trendwest Resorts, Cuendet, Holiday Cottages Group, Landal GreenParks, Novasol, Holiday Network, Welcome Holidays, Ltd., Avis, Budget, First Fleet, PHH Arval, Wright Express, Galileo International, THOR, Galileo International, HotelClub.com, RatesToGo.com, Travel 2 and Travel 4, Travelwire, Travelport, CheapTickets.com, Trip.com, Cendant Travel, Lodging.com, Neat Group, Shepherd Systems, TRUST International and WizCom, in addition to companies in real estate, mortgage, marketing, and various other fields.
Cendant�s deal makes it No. 2 online travel agency - 01-Oct-04.: "Cendant�s deal makes it No. 2 online travel agency"
"A Cendant spokesperson said key statistics for the transaction include these:
· The combination of Orbitz and Cendant properties CheapTickets.com and Lodging.com enables the company to reach more than 24 million Web site visitors each month.
· Together, Cendant TDS and Orbitz captured more than $6.9 billion in gross bookings in 2003...
the dealis "still has to be accepted by regulatory approvals, which are expected to come in November. If approved, the deal with provide cash to the five money-losing airlines that own most of Orbitz’s stock. They include American, United, Delta, Northwest and Continental.
Orbitz, the third-largest independent online travel sales Web site, was founded in 2000 by the top five US carriers, which was subsequently modeled by its European and Asian counterparts Opodo.com and Suji.com.
This transaction will make Cendant Travel Distribution Services the 4th largest global travel company behind #1 American Express Travel; # 2 Carlson Wagonlit Travel; and # 3 Interactivecorp, who owns Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Interval, TV Travel Shop in UK, Classic Custom Vactions, TravelNow, etc. Travelocity was # 6 in 2003.
· With Orbitz, Cendant has a 22% market share of the online travel industry."
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