501 not out

Time has passed and the posts keep flowing. Time for my "not out series" - a regular summary of the last 100 posts that I first started with 101 not out and continued with 201 , 301
and 401.

Just like the 401 update it has been deals, deals, deals that has dominated the last 100 BOOT rants:

• Wotif evenutally managed to by Travel.com.au/Lastminute.com.au despite a fight from Webjet and a cunning move from AOT. Followed up almost immediately buying Asia Web Direct;
• TripAdvisor launched a new version and continued its targeted site buying spree with HolidayWatchdog;
• TravelCLICK was sold to Genstar and the BOOT called it first;
• The Asian acquisition bonanza continued as Priceline returned to the market though an acquisition of Agoda, ;
• Sidestep disappeared in a flood of newly raised Kayak cash; and
  
• Venere bought Worldby.
  

Cash flowed into online travel:

• Fastbooking took Euro35mm;
  
• Worktopia grabbed $5mm;
  
• Bezurk got "an undisclosed sum" from News;
  

I spent some interesting times on the phone doing start up interviews with:

• Yen Lee of Kango;
  
• Gregg Brockway of TripIt;
  
• Martin Symes of Bezurk; and
• Kellie Pelletier of Kayak.

In the weird world of quirky news:

• bags fell from the sky;
  
• The president of Sri Lanka got bumped and was not happy about it;
  
• Man fired dog and bragged about it; and
  
• nobody, I repeat nobody is doing anything naughty naughty in the new Singapore Airlines double bed suites.

Oh and Qantas turned from being the flying Kangaroo to the thieving Rat.

But I saved my most angriest post for number 400 - the last in this seasons. When the new Australian government said they were doing me a favour by continuing to allow Qantas to over charge me on flights to America.

If you're still reading then I'm still writing.

Confirmation - Genstar buys TravelCLICK

It was a rumour on the BOOT in September, underground confirmation on the BOOT in November, now official announcement that PE firm Genstar are the new owners of Travel intelligence and marketing firm TravlCLICK. Stay tuned readers - 2008 is going to be fun.

TravelClick sold to PE firm Genstar

I published a rumour in September that TravelClick was on the cusp of being sold to a PE firm. Received confirmation today that a division of Genstar Capital has committed to buy the travel intelligence and marketing firm for around US$275mm. Deal closure to happen in about two weeks. You heard it here first at the BOOT - TravelClick has been sold to Genstar.

If you can - please Digg this story here.

Deal confirmed publicly on 20 Dec 2007

401 not out

Time for my "not out series" - a regular summary of the last 100 posts that I first started with 101 not out and continued with 201 and 301.

Without a doubt this recent period of posts on the BOOT have been dominated by consolidation and deals:

• Lonely Planet admitted that it could not meet the challenges of the Internet on its own and sold out a majority stake to the enterprise division of the BBC;
• Opodo shed Karavel with the story being broken by an blogger from the inside;
• TUI made a bad decision in buying asiarooms and once again search traffic predicted a deal;
• the battle for Travel.com.au (who now own the lastminute.com brand outright in AU/NZ) is not yet over with Webjet and Wotif at each others throats and AOT sitting not so quietly on the sidelines;
  
• Rakuten made some healthy profits and set itself for further expansion by selling out of Ctrip;
• the Flight Centre privatisation fell in a heap in an embarrassing way for the Flighties board;
  
• rumours flew that Priceline want Travelzoo and the comments section filled up with a debate on the merits of this idea; and
  
• we have the as yet to be confirmed rumour that TravelCLICK are about to be bought.
  

In other general news

• every media outlet there is ran a story about how bad the US air industry is prompting me to run my own series of the Airline Industry brought to you by BusinessWeek, the Legal Fraternity, Wharton, NPR, the Economist and Pizza Hut. Conclusions were that the US air traveller is stuffed and no-one is taking responsibility. In fact Marion Blakely quit as head of the Federal Aviation Authority to join the peak airline lobby group the Aerospace Industries Association;
• the T-List is soon to be a book. The BOOT submitted three stories:
• UGC vs Editorial. What's better? What's the balance? What's more 2.0?;
• Helping Airlines Stay on top; and
• the fourth phase of online travel - "too much information"; and
• it looks like Dead Herring for Red Herring.
  

and in quirky news

• one muppet shouted at two others;
  
• a lion, a crocodile and a buffalo tried to sort out their differences the old fashioned way; and
• the BOOT saved the world by defusing a jar of olives.

I hope you're enjoying reading because I am enjoying writing.

Rumour of the week - TravelCLICK to be bought out by a PE firm?

I have received an unsubstantiated and potentially scurrilous rumour that travel technology, data and information firm TravelCLICK is about to be purchased by a private equity firm. Very limited details so far. This rumour is rated as "who knows" on the likelihood scale UPDATE - this rumour is gathering pace and is looking more and more likely to be true. Will still need formal confirmation and a deal is never over until the lawyer hands the Monte Blanc to the client (famous legal phrase) but have definitely upgraded from "who knows" to "looking possible" so we will have to use the tried and true commentary of "we'll have to wait and see if it is true". TravelCLICK previsously received investment rounds from Bain Capital and Trimin Capital (and maybe others).

UPDATE - 25 Sept - traffic has been flying into the blog this morning from searches in Google like "TravelCLICK PE" and "TravelCLICK acquisition rumour". If history is anything to go by, deal announcements come soon after Google traffic flow.

UPDATE 2 - 29 Nov -deal confirmed. TravelClick sold to PE firm Genstar