TripAdvisor, which has been on an
acquisition tear in recent months, acquired Independent Traveler,
the publisher of Cruise Critic.
For TripAdvisor, a
unit of Expedia Inc., the purchase of Independent Traveler is its
fifth acquisition of a travel media company in the last nine
months.
Previous
acquisitions included Travel Library (September 2006), TravelPod
(December 2006), Smarter Travel Media (February 2007) and SeatGuru
(March 2007).
Expedia Inc. didn't
disclose the purchase prices of any of the acquisitions but did
note recently that it bought one travel media company in the first
quarter of this year for $41.1 million and a 50% ownership in
another on March 30 for $26 million in cash.
Brian Payea, a
TripAdvisor spokesman, said the purchase of Cruise Critic would
enable Trip-Advisor to expand its content and advertising in the
cruise segment.
"We've had limited
information on cruises up until now," Payea said.
He said TripAdvisor
was not ready to discuss any plans regarding integrating the
content.
"There are no
near-term plans for extensive integration of the business or the
Web domains, and no staffing changes are expected," TripAdvisor
said in a statement.
Kathleen Tucker
will continue to head Independent Traveler.
Founded in 1990,
Independent Traveler operates a string of travel-information Web
sites and is headquartered in Pennington, N.J. The Cruise Critic
Web site offers cruise news, reviews and advertising.
To contact reporter Dennis Schaal, send
e-mail to [email protected]