Expedia which is the parent company of the travel sites all over the world is buying shot term rental site HomeAway for $3.9 billion.This move will heat up the market against to Airbnb.The deal, announced today and agreed upon by both companies’ boards, is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
This is the largest payment to buy a travel site ever .Though, Expedia paid $38.31 per lot to HomeAway which is based Austin, Texas.HomeAway investors responded favorably to the news, sending its shares up $6.88, or roughly 22 percent, in after-hours trading.”We have long had our eyes on the fast-growing $100 billion alternative accommodations space and have been building on our partnership with HomeAway, a global leader in vacation rentals, for two years,” Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.
Since being spun off from online conglomerate InterActiveCorp in 2005, Expedia has made several big acquisitions to fend off would-be challengers. Its acquisition strategy has become more aggressive as Airbnb has grown into a viable hotel alternative with a $25.5 billion valuation. In January of this year, Expedia paid $280 million to acquire competitor Travelocity. It spent $1.2 billion to scoop up Orbitz.com a month later.