FORT WORTH, Texas -- Travelocity agreed March 25 to buy the
2-year-old Site59.com, the online seller of last-minute air, hotel
and rental car inventory. Under terms of the deal, Travelocity will
acquire Site59 for $43 million in cash.
Travelocity said Site59 will broaden its focus to provide
higher-margin hotel inventory to the Web-based agency. That
inventory will complement the product that Travelocity obtains
through its long-term agreement with Hotel Reservations
Network.
Meanwhile, Site59 will continue to provide last-minute travel
products to travel agents through Worldspan Go! and through the
agent program that is available to any retailer at www.site59.com.
Site59, through its proprietary software, allows agents to
create and book packages in real time. It pays uncapped commissions
on its packages.
A Site59 spokeswoman said the operation also will continue its
reliance on Worldspan as its underlying reservations system despite
the fact that Sabre controls 70% of Travelocity and may soon own
considerably more.
Travelocity said it intends to operate Site59 as a separate unit
and that it expects to begin generating revenue from last-minute
travel operations immediately.