The Times is reporting that Web Reservations International (WRI) is up for sale with a price tag of £275m.
WRI is owned by Ray Nolan and U2 Manager Paul McGuinnes. It operates
- boo.com - the former fashion/clothing site and poster child for the dotcom bust in Europe is now a meta-search company
- Hostelworld.com - online booking for hostels, backpakers and budget accommodation
- Hostels.com - more hostels and backpacker bookings with content
- Trav.com - more budget accomm including cheap hotels, motels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, youth hostels, holiday apartments, campsites, inns and lodges
thanks to joshhostels where I spotted the story first on Twitter and Hostelmanagement where he spotted it.
8 comments:
your group not interested or are they still playing with the Amadeus sandpit ?
Thanks for the mention.
I run HostelManagement.com by the way.
The sale of WRI will definitely have a major effect on the hostel industry.
--Josh
("@joshhostels" on Twitter)
Maybe Hostelbookers can raise a boatload of cash and take 'em over?
I find it interesting that the revenue multiple for this potential sale (7.7x) is almost exactly the same as SideStep's for the Kayak deal. Although I don't recall seeing profit figures included for the SideStep transaction...ever hear of any?
And I wonder what HW's asking price would have been 18 months ago.
I am not sure how The Times came out with this number of £275M valuation to sell the WRI businesses. By the look of it, they are looking at a multiple of 8 times the yearly revenue they do per year. Seems a bit much to me compared with other similars than happened in the last 5 years in Europe (Booking, Active Hotels, Venere...)
@Guillaume - good point - chances are it was WRI talking themselves up to the journo
This will be a major milestone in this concern......
TravelIndia
So apparenty WRI was sold to private equity group Hellman & Friedman for a rumoured £200M transaction. Still puzzled about the valuation of the group though.
Techcrunch said today "about $340 million" (~220m euros at today's exchange rate).
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