Rumour confirmed - Opodo no longer owns Karavel

As predicted by Opodo staff member Mario Gavira (and reported here by me) , Barclays Private Equity has been confirmed as the new owner of Karavel.

UPDATE - Onelinetravelcrunch that first broke the story has been shut down. Kevin May carries more of the story here.

Rumour of the Week - Amadeus/Opodo to sell off Karavel to Barclay's Private Equity

Mario Gavira at onlinetraveltravelcrunch is reporting that Amadeus/Opodo is going to get rid of French tour operator Karavel with Barclays Private Equity the likely buyer. Mario reports the price at around Euro 100, giving Amadeus at raw Euro 40 million profit on its original purchase price. He has heard of a possible formal announcement today at the French trade fair TopResa. There is some good analysis in Mario's post on the business and rationale for the sale. My (possibly over simplified view) is that Opodo needs to focus on the simple online things - selling air, selling hotels (which they have made harder for themselves but abandoning an in-house program), selling car and capturing customers. Karavel is much more offline than on, so makes sense to pass it to someone else.

UPDATE - Onelinetravelcrunch that first broke the story has been shut down. Kevin May carries more of the story here.