Travel Jigsaw fits for US giant Priceline
AN AMERICAN leisure giant has snapped-up North West Internet car hire company Travel Jigsaw.
Priceline.com, which is based in Connecticut and listed on Nasdaq, did not disclose the terms of the deal, but it is is understood to have paid more than £90m for the Manchester company, which was originally backed by Airtours founder David Crossland.
Mr Crossland exited in 2008 when private equity firm ISIS led a buyout which valued the business at £28m. His son Andrew still works for the company.
Under the terms of the sale -which was led by corporate financier Jonathan Boyers at KPMG in Manchester, Priceline.com will retain Travel Jigsaw’s management team, who will maintain small stake in the business.
Travel Jigsaw was founded in 2004 and claims to be the fastest growing online car rental agency in the world.
It offers its car hire services in more than 4,000 locations in 80 countries in North America, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. In this country it trades as CarHire3000.com.
Priceline.com president and chief executive Jeffery Boyd said: “We believe that Travel Jigsaw will be a valuable addition to our group of fast-growing international businesses.
“Travel Jigsaw has a strong management team with a growth strategy that complements our own, and we look forward to working with Greg Wills and his team.”
Greg Wills, managing director of Travel Jigsaw said: “”TravelJigsaw is excited to become part of the Priceline group and will benefit from increased awareness for our brands and resources for our business.
“We also look forward to working with the teams at Booking.com, priceline.com and Agoda.com to strengthen our offerings and build distribution for our services.”
ISIS, which invested £12.89m for a 40% stake in Travel Jigsaw in 2008, said it eas “delighted” with its exit,
Adam Holloway said: “It has been a privilege to work with Greg and the team in the development of TravelJigsaw.
“The business has delivered fantastic growth through the severest economic downturn in decades by relentlessly focusing on its proposition to customers and suppliers and through skilful yield management.
“We are delighted with our return and are sure that TravelJigsaw will thrive under Priceline’s ownership.”
Priceline.com is one of the leading travel brands in the US. For many years its advertising campaigns were fronted by Star Trek actor William Shatner.
