Investment firm Long Lake Management has agreed to acquire American Express Global Business Travel (No. 3 on Travel Weekly's Power List) for $9.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $6.3 billion.
Founded in 2023, Long Lake focuses on acquiring services businesses and modernizing them using artificial intelligence (AI).
Amex GBT said the purchase price is a 60.2% premium to the closing stock price on May 1, the last full trading day prior to the transaction announcement.
The deal will take Amex GBT private. The company said American Express, Expedia, Qatar Investment Authority and BlackRock, which together own 69% of Amex GBT's shares, have entered into voting agreements in support of the deal.
American Express, which owns approximately 30% of Amex GBT, said the company will receive $1.5 billion when the deal closes, and that the transaction will "not change the companies' current brand licensing and commercial agreements."
Amex GBT chief executive officer Paul Abbott said the deal will "drive the transformation of business travel."
Long Lake co-founder and CEO Alex Taubman said, "The future of business travel will be defined by AI and human agents working seamlessly together on behalf of every traveler: faster booking times, proactive disruption resolution and frictionless travel administration. In partnership with Long Lake, Amex GBT will continue to invest heavily in these capabilities and continue to set the gold standard for customer excellence."
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to stockholder and regulatory approvals.