China’s Ctrip Announces Agreement to Acquire Skyscanner

Leading Chinese online travel agent Ctrip on Thursday announced it has agreed to acquire Scotland-based flight-metasearch engine Skyscanner.

Ctrip.com International, Ltd. is a leading travel service provider of accommodation reservations, transportation ticketing, packaged tours and corporate travel management in China.

On Thursday, November 24, the company signed a definitive agreement with the majority shareholders of Skyscanner Holdings Limited, under which Ctrip will acquire all of such shareholders’ shares in Skyscanner and will offer to acquire shares from the remaining shareholders of Skyscanner. The terms of the acquisition value Skyscanner at approximately £1.4 billion ($1.6 billion).

The boards of directors of the Company and Skyscanner have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of 2016. Skyscanner’s current management team will continue to manage Skyscanner’s operations independently as part of the Ctrip group.

“Skyscanner is one of the largest travel search platforms in the world,” said James Jianzhang Liang, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Ctrip.

“We are excited to welcome Skyscanner into the Ctrip group. Ctrip and Skyscanner share the same passion and dedication in providing travelers around the world with better services. This acquisition will strengthen long-term growth drivers for both companies. Skyscanner will complement our positioning at a global scale and Ctrip will leverage our experience, technology and booking capabilities to Skyscanner’s.”

On his part, Gareth Williams, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skyscanner, said that today’s news takes Skyscanner one step closer to its goal of making travel search as simple as possible for travelers around the world.

“Ctrip is the clear market leader in China and a company we can learn a huge amount from… Ctrip and Skyscanner share a common view – that organizing travel has a long way to go to being solved. To do so requires powerful technology and a traveler-first approach. In taking the next step to achieving our goal, Skyscanner will remain operationally independent and our growing global team will continue to innovate and deliver the products travelers know and love. It’s an exciting time for our business, our partners and the travelers who use us.”