US travel giant The Priceline Group has announced that it is to acquire Cheapflights owner Momondo Group for $550 million.
The Priceline Group confirmed on Tuesday that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Momondo, with the deal expected to be completed later this year subject to regulatory approval.
Momondo Group chief executive, Hugo Burge, said: “This announcement heralds an exciting new chapter for our business and our teams.
“We look forward to becoming part of the Kayak family within The Priceline Group, and are very confident that the blend of brands and our different strengths will help us to jointly pursue what we both believe most passionately in – building products users love.
“Our business is in great shape across the 30-plus markets in which we operate, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to build on that further.”
Burge added: “The Priceline Group has a proven track record of operating successful, customer-centric travel brands all over the world.
“We couldn’t be more excited to join such an esteemed group of loved brands and join forces with Kayak to bring the best in meta search to our growing customer bases worldwide.”
Momondo Group is based in the UK and Copenhagen, and operates brands including metasearch engine Momondo and Cheapflights.
It is currently owned by Great Hill Partners, and will be included in The Priceline Group’s portfolio under its existing meta brand Kayak.
Steve Hafner, chief executive of Kayak, said: “Momondo and Cheapflights have built great products serving loyal users across Europe. We’re looking forward to learning from them and sharing best practices as our brands expand globally.”