Ford Sells Hertz To Group Of InvestorsFollowing months of speculation and reports of a bidding war for Hertz Corp., Ford Motor Co. last week confirmed is selling its rental car unit to a group of investors including Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. The transaction, valued at $15 billion, includes $5.6 billion for the equity of Hertz as well as the assumption of the rental car company's debt. The parties involved said the deal should close by year-end, following regulatory approval. The sale of Hertz injects Ford with cash to offset sluggish auto sales. "Hertz is a world-class company with an experienced management team. We look forward to working with the new owners and intend to maintain our strong commercial relationship with Hertz," said Ford executive vice president and chief financial officer Don Leclair. In the past decade, Ford has had an on-again, off-again ownership of the rental car firm and in 2001 acquired all outstanding shares of Hertz.
Cendant Buys Wyndham Franchising RightsCendant Hotel Group—franchisor of midprice, economy and budget hotel brands—last week entered the upscale lodging market by purchasing the franchising rights to and management contracts of the Wyndham hotel brand from The Blackstone Group. The deal comes on the on heels of Blackstone's $3.24 billion acquisition of Wyndham International, which closed last month. Through the $100 million transaction, Cendant is acquiring franchise agreements for 82 hotels and management contracts for 29 hotels, but will not acquire any properties. Cendant said it expects the deal to close next month. "We have long sought to add an upscale hospitality brand to our portfolio, and our patience has been rewarded," Stephen Holmes, chairman and chief executive officer of Cendant's travel content division, said in a statement. "We intend to build upon Wyndham's existing franchising and property management capabilities."
U.K. Rules Against MasterCard Interchange FeesThe United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading this month ruled MasterCard's interchange fees breached competition standards and asked that rates be lowered. Sir John Vickers, OFT chairman, said the fee "was like a tax on U.K. consumers." The U.K. joins Australia as governments that have stepped in to regulate interchange. While U.S. regulators have not interfered with such fee structures, merchant fees have come under fire in the form of several lawsuits against MasterCard and Visa
(BTN, Aug. 15). MasterCard is appealing the OFT ruling.
Low-Fare Airlines Using New IT SystemsCendant Travel Distribution Services last week named Canada's WestJet as the launch customer for its next-generation passenger services system
(BTNonline, Sept. 8). The Aires platform is "designed to replace less flexible, more expensive, older legacy airline hosting systems" and will be used by WestJet for passenger reservations, inventory control, fares, ticketing, and departure control. Developed in conjunction with IBS Software Services in Trivandrum, India, Aires will replace WestJet's current platform, furnished by Accenture subsidiary Navitaire. Meanwhile, Virgin Blue this month opened a new direct link between its reservations system and those of corporate and agency clients. Internally developed and designed to capture business and government travel market share, the application program interface provides full schedule information, booking capabilities, billing and ticket changes. The airline said that "40travel agencies, corporates and otherorganizationshavesigned up" to use the system, which would reduce more costly bookings via global distribution systems. EasyJet this year announced a similar approach when it partnered with BTI for U.K. corporate travel bookings
(BTNonline, March 10).E-Mail-Based Booking System Targets Unmanaged TravelTechnology firm Portaga Inc. last week unveiled an application targeted to companies with unmanaged travel that allows users to book travel through the Microsoft Outlook e-mail system. Once downloaded, Portaga Travel Manager pulls inventory from the Sabre global distribution system and recommends an itinerary to travelers. Officials said the technology is an adaptation of Avis Rent A Car's booking technology. Portaga does not sell the technology to corporations; rather, it sells the functionality to travel management companies—including Atlas Travel International, Portaga's initial TMC customer—that resell to corporate customers and pay Portaga a flat per-transaction fee.