Yahoo Japan continues to build up its travel business, agreeing a massive takeover of Japanese travel, hotel and leisure business Ikyu Corp.
Reports say that Yahoo Japan will spend up to $830 million taking full control of Ikyu and that this is Yahoo Japan's biggest ever deal.
Ikyu.com has been around since 2000 while the parent company has operated under the name Ikyu Corp since 2004.
It currently operates six businesses:
- Ikyu.com, which sells high-end hotels and Japanese-style inns;
- Ikyu.com for Business, focused on premium no-frills hotels;
- Ikyu.com for Restaurants, which offers real-time reservations;
- Ikyu.com for Overseas, which sells upmarket overseas hotels;
- Ikyu.com for Spa, which sells spa experiences;
- and Gift Ikyu, which sells online gift vouchers which can be used at any of the other Ikyu businessses.
Yahoo! Japan is a joint venture between Yahoo Inc, which owned 35.5% of Yahoo! Japan at the end of September, and Japanese technology and investment giant,
Softbank.
This September, Yahoo! Japan and the UK's Skyscanner linked up to launch Skyscanner Japan.
https://www.tnooz.com/article/ceo-qa-skyscanner-talks-about-its-joint-venture-with-yahoo-japan/
Meanwhile, Softbank itself has a dedicated presence on Alitrip, the Chinese travel marketplace run by Alibaba.
Click here to read the Ikyu deal announcement in full