Cendant to embrace trade with £209m ebookers deal

Cendant’s swoop on ebookers is designed to position the US travel giant as a key player in the European online travel market.

Following the much anticipated £209 million purchase, ebookers founder and CEO Dinesh Dhamija is to stand down to be replaced by a by a new as yet unnamed boss.

Dhamija, who will earn a reported £87 million from the sale, will resign from ebookers once the acquisition has been completed as expected in the first quarter of 2005 but will be available to Cendant in a consultancy role.

Mr Dhamija said: “Within the Cendant group, ebookers will be well placed to take the business to the next level, building on our existing strengths in Europe and excellence in value-added services such as long haul and hotels.”

Ebookers will join a growing UK portfolio of travel companies run by Cendant, including Travel 2/4 acquired last year.

Cendant also purchased the largest US online firm Orbitz last month for $1.2 billion to add to Australian company Flairview Travel, which runs the HotelClub.com and RatesToGo.com online brands across14 countries. Cendant owns Galileo, Avis in the US, a range of hotel brands, timeshare company RCI and tour operators in the UK domestic and European package holiday sectors.

Cendant was believed to be up against Sabre to acquire ebookers, which will now become part of its Travel Distribution Services division but run as a separate entity.

Ebookers, which claims to attract more than 3.5 million unique visitors to its website each month, will “offer a broader direct channel for Cendant in the European online travel arena which is growing significantly, especially on the continent,” according to the group’s international markets managing director Gordon Wilson.

Crucially, he indicated that ebookers, which is represented in 13 European countries, would support the trade as Cendant develops both direct and indirect distribution channels.

“It is for this reason, for example, that HotelClub inventory is now available not only to the consumer but also to travel agencies using Galileo,” he said. “We envisage similar content and technology benefits benefiting the trade as a result of ebookers.”

Mr Wilson added: “We are successfully broadening our scale and relevance within the travel supply community, enabling us to secure a richer inventory for our agency partners. Our goal is to ensure that both for travel product suppliers and for our travel agency partners we offer value which is greater than purely processing transactions.”

He said: “We will obtain an excellent brand and a multi-national sales, service and content acquisition capability, as well as a dynamic new management team.”

Mr Wilson described the deal as a “logical next step” in Cendant’s strategy to enhance its position as a “true retailer of travel”.

Cendant TDS division employs almost 5,000 staff in 116 countries.

Report by Phil Davies