UPDATE:
In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, NYSE-listed Travelport discloses the purchase price for Mobile Travel Technologies at Euro 55 million.
In total the company spent $93 million on these investments during 2014, but M&A activity spend for 2015 is likely to be less than this, CEO and president Gordon Wilson admitted in February this year.
"We will spend less cash on M&A this year than last, but if there was a business I really wanted there are other ways to fund it.
"It’s not about the money, it’s just that there are only so many acquisitions you can do at once."
ORIGINAL:
Mobile Travel Technologies has become part of the Travelport family via an undisclosed cash deal.
The Ireland-based mobile platform provider will continue to operate as a separate brand within Travelport under its existing management team and founder/CEO, Gerry Samuels.
MTT counts airlines (EasyJet, Singapore Airlines), hotels (Jumeirah), travel management companies (BCD Travel) and online travel agencies within its customer base.
Although financial terms of the deal have not be shared, Travelport says that it will pay performance-related stock options to MTT executives to the tune of Euro 14.4 million by the first quarter of 2018.
Samuels is not completely new to the world of travel distribution companies, prior to creating MTT having worked for Worldspan (pre-Travelport deal with Galileo) and co-founding Gradient Solutions which was later sold to Sabre.
Travelport president and CEO, Gordon Wilson, says the deal to buy MTT now gives Travelport "expertise and strength" in four areas in its strategy to grow the business alongside its traditional airline distribution marketplace: hotel distribution (via the Hotelzon deal last summer), mobile, payments (via eNett), and merchandising.
He adds:
"You can't be a travel commerce platform these days without having a mobile technology component. It (MTT) has a very strong leadership position in its market and a fantastic customer base."
Wilson says the acquisition is expected to be "neutral" to Travelport's overall financial performance during 2015, but will begin to contribute to its Beyond Air revenues in future years.
MTT specialises in creating a number of mobile-related products, including white label mobile apps for travel brands, notification technology, mobile check-in tools and device-based search and booking platforms.
The company took its first external investment by way of a $5 million capital raise from Irish venture fund DfJ Esprit (now Drape Esprit) in June 2012.
Samuels says:
"MTT has experienced very significant growth as the market and demand for mobile travel has expanded and there is enormous potential to grow further.
"Now with the support of a global industry leader such as Travelport, we will be even better placed to capitalise and expand into the considerable opportunities we see ahead of us."