2022 M&A Review
It doesn’t seem particularly likely that 2022 will go down in the history books as a year in which the business travel landscape was radically altered through merger and acquisition activity. Still, there were a handful of notable deals this year that could affect the approaches corporate travel buyers take in the market in the coming years.
What follows is not a comprehensive list of all business deals during 2022—look to Business Travel News’ website at the beginning of 2023 for that—but instead a look at some of the most consequential deals for the business travel sector and a sense of where they stood at press time.
Sabre buys Conferma. Travel technology company and global distribution system operator Sabre in August paid $72.5 million to acquire U.K.-based virtual payments company Conferma Ltd. Conferma Pay for years had powered Sabre’s Virtual Payments product. While Conferma continues to operate as an independent entity, Sabre has continued to integrate Conferma and its issuer network across Sabre’s products. In late November, Sabre announced that Mastercard had taken a minority share in Conferma for an undisclosed price. “The new partnership with Mastercard will help Conferma Pay to build new and enhanced digital capabilities in virtual cards, transforming the payment experience for issuers,” Sabre Travel Solutions EVP and chief commercial officer Roshan Mendis said in a statement.
JetBlue agrees to buy Spirit. The year’s twistiest acquisition came from the airline industry. JetBlue Airways successfully contested an agreed-to merger between Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines, pitching a $3.8 billion package directly to Spirit’s shareholders over the opposition of Spirit’s board of directors, leading Frontier eventually to drop out of the deal. There’s no guarantee the deal passes federal muster, especially with JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance with American Airlines already the target of a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit. Spirit’s network and low-cost offerings are decidedly leisure-centric, but a bulked-up JetBlue would offer corporate buyers another airline option and could prove a more attractive acquisition option itself.
Choice Hotels buys Radisson. Choice Hotels International often has targeted its brands, including Comfort, Clarion, Quality Inn and economy brands Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn, toward blue-collar business travelers like truckers and construction crews, who use highways to travel. But its $675 million deal to buy Radisson Hotel Group Americas, which closed in August, allows it to push deeper into the upscale segment with nine new brands, 624 properties—many in urban locations—and a refined pitch to the corporate market. Radisson purchased the brands from Jin Jiang International.
OTHER DEALS OF NOTE
Several business travel suppliers announced smaller-scale deals in 2022:
• JPMorgan Chase this year acquired travel management company Frosch Travel Group for an undisclosed sum. Frosch in recent years has been an acquirer, making deals with several TMCs including CorpTrav and Valerie Wilson Travel.
• Travel management company TripActions this year acquired Swedish TMC Resia and Berlin-based TMC Comtravo, and a Business Insider report indicated TripActions has filed confidential paperwork for an initial public offering next year.
• Marriott International in October signed a $100 million deal with Mexico-based midscale hospitality company Hoteles City Express to acquire its City Express brand portfolio.
• U.K.-based travel technology firm Snowfall acquired online booking tool Psngr1, with plans to merge it with its own technology.
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