Expedia Corporate Travel Buys U.K. Agency

Expedia Corporate Travel quickly has made good on its promise at last month's National Business Travel Association annual convention to expand in Europe with its purchase of the London-based travel management company World Travel Management for an undisclosed sum. World Travel managing director Mike Bor confirmed that the sale had taken place and will be announced officially in the next few days.

"This confirms Expedia's ambition to become a global corporate travel solution," Bor said. "It has identified World Travel as the U.K. platform for those plans." ECT president Matt Hulett told NBTA that his company was "looking to build a global footprint" and "fill out Europe." This is the second acquisition in Europe by ECT, the first being the purchase in March of Paris-based online agency Egencia. ECT claims to have 500 clients in Europe, with an average online adoption rate of 65 percent compared with 80 percent in the United States.

World Travel is a $63 million TMC. Well-respected in the United Kingdom, it has many financial services clients. Bor said that "Germany is high on the list" for ECT's expansion plans in Europe.