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Travelocity acquires German travel site
Travelocity has strengthened its position in Europe by taking over a leading German travel website. Sabre-owned Travolocity’s joint venture company Travelocity Europe is to acquire online travel site travelchannel.de for an undisclosed sum, subject to approval by European regulatory authorities. Hamburg-based travelchannel.de was originally created by publishing group Gruner + Jahr in 1999. Half of the company was sold to Travelocity’s German joint venture partner Otto Freizeit und Touristik (OFT) in 2000, with the remainder bought in 2003. Travelchannel.de is one of the most successful German travel portals, according to Dirk Hauke, chief executive of Travelocity Europe. “We have a tremendous opportunity to make use of its significant synergies and benefit from the strength of each of the companies in order to enlarge our range of products and service,” he said. Travelocity president Michelle Peluso described expansion in Europe as “a high priority” adding that travelchannel.de “will play a key role in accelerating our growth in Germany and beyond”. German’s OFT is part of the Otto Group, the world’s largest mail order group, which claims to be number two to Amazon in online trade. It has more than 65,000 staff and had turnover of 19.2 billion euros in 2002. Report by Phil Davies
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