Expedia Buys French Corporate Online Agency

Expedia Inc. today announced the acquisition of Paris-based online corporate agency Egencia, a four-year-old company with operations in Belgium, France and--since January--the United Kingdom. An Expedia Corporate Travel official said the company has about 500 clients. Egencia on its Web site notes a partnership with French corporate online booking vendor KDS International. The ECT official said Egencia has "its own technology, and they use a little outside technology, but they will move to our platform."

Egencia's Web site also claimed the company has more than 30 clients with online adoption rates that eclipse 90 percent, and that more than 65 percent of the firm's overall client bookings are made online. The ECT official was unable immediately to describe Egencia's offline facilities and fulfillment capabilities.

According to the president of Expedia parent InterActiveCorp's Europe travel division Simon Breakwell, "The addition of Egencia will jumpstart the expansion of Expedia's corporate travel offerings in Europe."

"It's an example of how fast and aggressive the online agencies are in expanding globally. There was an easy criticism from the large TMCs saying, 'You're not global,' " said Belmont, Calif.-based Travel Tech Consulting president Norm Rose. "We see how quickly things can change."