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Holiday-Rentals.co.uk owner makes French acquisition
HomeAway Inc, the US owner of Holiday-Rentals.co.uk, has acquired French market leader, Abritel.fr.
At the same time, HomeAway has enlisted Alexander, Marc and Oliver Samwer – the high profile founders of Alando (now eBay Germany) and Jamba! – as investors and advisors to the company.
The three have become investors through their venture capital firm, the European Founders Fund GmbH.
Abritel.fr is HomeAway’s third acquisition in Europe, where the company also operates sites in the UK and Germany; Holiday-Rentals.co.uk and FeWo-direkt.de.
In November, HomeAway announced it had $160 million in financing to fund global expansion initiatives including the purchase of its US rival, VRBO.com.
This was the largest private equity investment in an internet and software company worldwide in 2006.
With the addition of Abritel.fr, HomeAway’s European subsidiaries now represent over 60,000 properties worldwide.
HomeAway Europe managing director Alexis de Belloy said: “Abritel.fr shares in this commitment and accelerates HomeAway’s efforts to bring holiday rentals to the mainstream travel industry.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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