Business Travel News will close the book on 2007 with a rundown of the most popular stories on
BTNonline throughout the year. Through Dec. 28, see the interviews and news articles on which
BTNonline readers have most frequently clicked, capped by a rundown of
BTNonline's overall Top 10 of 2007.
Today,
BTNonline features the five most popular stories about 2007 mergers, and a few that didn't come to pass. All rankings are based on
BTNonline visitors from Jan. 1 to Dec. 17, 2007.
1. April 23, 2007: Enter Enterprise: Replacement Car Renter Revs Corporate Engine With National, Alamo Buy (Overall rank: 5)Enterprise Rent-A-Car's acquisition marked a dramatic expansion of its position in the corporate car rental market, adding to its mighty off-airport presence.
2. January 22, 2007: US Merger In The Air: Industry Debates Airline Consolidation, Awaits US Airways/Delta Endgame And Fallout (Overall rank: 6)In early January, US Airways' ultimately unsuccessful hostile bid for Delta Air Lines looked like it could spark a wave of domestic airline deals. Instead, then-bankrupt Delta's creditors rejected the deal, and the carrier—like all major domestic airlines—at the close of 2007 remained a stand-alone entity.
3. July 9, 2007: Blackstone's Billions To Fuel Hilton Growth (Overall rank: 14)For several years an acquisitive investor in extended stay and midprice hotel chains, The Blackstone Group landed its biggest fish with the $26 billion purchase of Hilton Hotels Corp. Blackstone since has retained all Hilton assets, but installed Host's Christopher Nassetta as CEO instead of previous CEO-in-waiting Matthew Hart.
4. January 22, 2007: Travelport Cues Up Worldspan: One-On-One With CEO Jeff Clarke (Overall rank: 16)Travelport CEO Jeff Clarke detailed the opportunities and planned integration of the Worldspan global distribution system, purchased in December 2006, with Travelport's Galileo GDS.
5. March 5, 2007: Buyers Mull Car Rental Merger Talks (Overall rank: 24)Hopefully, they didn't waste too much time mulling. The merger talks in question here were between Dollar Thrifty and Vanguard, rendered moot by Enterprise's purchase of Vanguard less than one month later.
Visit BTNonline on Dec. 24 to see BTN's most popular one-on-one interviews of 2007.