Skift Take
Booking.com's appeal of the adverse European Commission decision on its merger with eTraveli Group will take years to play out. If self-styled "bigger fish" eTraveli is still around for the taking, it would cost considerably more.
eTraveli Group was left at the altar last week when the European Commission blocked its acquisition by Booking Holdings on antitrust grounds. Booking is appealing, but eTraveli CEO Mathias Hedlund said the $1.8 billion deal would be "no longer in play." "We are a bigger fish now than we were at the time," Hedlund said in an exclusive interview with Skift, referring to when the company signed the merger deal in November 2021. He said eTraveli is 2.4 times larger than before the pandemic.
”Naturally the sales and purchase agreement was dependent on regulatory approval, and should Booking win the appeal, then a new SPA would need to be made,” Hedlund added. He declined to comment on whether eTraveli would receive a break-up fee from Booking. A Booking spokesperson declined to comment on the acquisition price issue.
The two parties agreed to the deal when the European aviation industry was still depressed. Any renegotiation of the acquisition price would have to take into account not only eTraveli's growth but also that its flights partnership with Booking.com is responsible for some of that growth.
Another issue is that some of eTraveli Group's partn