One reason, presumably, is that the likes of Expedia and Priceline could see that the sector was on the cusp of some significant growth.
In terms of acquisitions, Priceline invested the most, as we all know, with a massive $1.8 billion splashed out to get its hands on US giant Kayak in November 2012.
Expedia followed suit just a few weeks later with a deal to buy a majority stake in European brand Trivago for $632 million.
Two years on from flurry of activity, Expedia is perhaps starting to some kind of return on its investment.
In a filing today to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, Expedia has outlined a recasting of its financials for both 2013 and 2014 due to a change in how it will report across its various segments.
The company is now divided into four areas:
· Core OTA (Expedia, Hotwire, Travelocity, Venere, Wotif)
· Trivago
· Egencia
· eLong
The filing then goes on to break down the revenue and other financial reporting lines for each segment, with the Trivago division perhaps catching the eye.
Trivago took $216 million in revenue during 2013, but this figure jumped to $414 million by the end of 2014.
This has come at a cost, however, with adjusted EBITDA at Trivago falling from $18 million to $4 million over the same period.
To compare against another part of the business, Core OTA took $4.069 billion in revenue in 2013 and $4.905 billion in 2014, with adjusted EBITDA climbing from $1.172 billion to $1.387 billion over the same period.
The huge jump in revenue at Trivago could be, in part, down to the massive investment in advertising across the group during 2014 when $2.8 billion was spent on marketing.
Read original article
