Industry experts said last week that they weren't surprised to hear that American Express Global Business Travel will be acquired after rumors circulated that the TMC was on the market.
Still, they were surprised by the buyer: Long Lake Management, an investment firm focused on applying disruptive technology, particularly AI, to service industries.
The transaction, announced May 4, is valued at $6.3 billion, with Amex GBT shareholders earning a 60.2% premium on their shares. Subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, the deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Amex GBT is the third-largest U.S. travel agency and its largest TMC. The company recorded $30.48 billion in sales in 2024, according to Travel Weekly's Power List; that figure will be bolstered by last year's acquisition of CWT, which recorded 2024 sales of $15.2 billion.
Claudia Unger, a research analyst with Phocuswright, called the sale a "landmark transaction, and not just because of the size."
Claudia Unger
"What we're seeing is the explicit repositioning of the world's largest TMC as an AI platform play," she said. "Long Lake isn't buying Amex GBT because it wants to be in travel. It's buying the data asset, the client relationships and the transaction volume that sits underneath it.
"That's a fundamentally different ownership logic than anything we've seen in this sector before, and the industry needs to take it seriously."
The acquisition is an indication that the future of managed corporate travel could be shaped by companies that come from outside of the travel industry, although Long Lake's investors do have some travel industry experience. General Catalyst has invested in Airbnb and Kayak, while Alpha Wave's investments include Aman Resorts.
Long Lake did not respond to a request for comment.
There's value in the data
Unger said she believes Long Lake saw opportunity in Amex GBT's "extraordinarily rich" underlying dataset, including booking patterns and policy compliance, with "underdeveloped" AI sitting atop that data.
"For a company whose entire model is built around applying frontier AI to services businesses, that gap looks like an opportunity," she said. "Amex GBT gives them scale, trust and a global client base to deploy into immediately."
Industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, founder of Atmosphere Research Group, said Long Lake was an unexpected buyer and noted it will keep Amex GBT's name and a brand-licensing agreement with American Express.
"Long Lake could certainly have looked at a rebranding, and they're not," he said. "I give them credit for recognizing that there is strength in the Amex GBT name and strength in the relationship between Amex GBT and American Express itself."
Henry Harteveldt
Harteveldt views the transaction as a feather in the cap of business travel: the sale price is indicative of the value in corporate travel management. It also illustrates the importance of the investments Amex GBT has made in AI and other technology, and the tech Long Lake will bring to the table.
In Amex GBT's fourth-quarter earnings call in March, CEO Paul Abbott told investors that the TMC was realizing revenue and cost benefits from its AI technology. Among the examples he gave were AI's assistance in increasing customer self-service and driving higher conversions through personalization. He also said AI helped make products faster and better.
Evan Konwiser, Amex GBT's chief product and strategy officer, said the company was focused on investing in AI to improve the customer experience and its B2B platforms. He also described a "generational opportunity to redefine our operating model and cost base."
Harteveldt said he thinks Long Lake's acquisition will have others thinking about M&A activity. "The question really is, who's out there that's on the market or could be persuaded to enter into a deal, and at what price?" he said.
Unger said she believes the deal will speed up the move toward more personalized travel content for business travelers.
"But it raises a question that hasn't been asked loudly enough yet: Whose interests is that personalization serving -- the traveler, the corporate buyer or the platform?" she said. "Those interests don't always align."
The answer doesn't just have commercial ramifications, she said, but also legal ones, especially in tightly regulated markets like Europe, with measures such as the EU AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation.
"That's a conversation the industry needs to have now, not after the deal closes," she said.