China Travel Firm Ctrip To Buy Skyscanner For $2.5 Billion (straitstimes.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Ctrip.com International will buy British flight price-checking site Skyscanner for about S$ 2.5 billion, as China's largest online travel firm explores ways to expand beyond a home market it already dominates. The deal will allow Ctrip, whose growth has been tied to the sharp rise of Chinese tourism, to gain a strong foothold in Europe. Skyscanner, one of the region's larger flight-ticketing services, has more than 60 million monthly active users. Ctrip said it would be able to offer a more complete array of options combining air, rail and road travel. It announced the deal on Wednesday, alongside better-than-expected quarterly revenue and earnings. Its shares climbed almost 7 per cent in New York in after-hours trade.

Comments

A flood of chicom chairmen incoming

[fubarrr]

In Soviet Britain Chicom chairman buys you!

The world's most popular subsidiary

[AmiMoJo]

The model for UK businesses these days seem to be to sell themselves to overseas owners, and become a subsidiary. We have hardly any big companies left any more. Most of our manufacturing and services are foreign owned now.

Why are we so bad at investing in our own companies? Why do they have to go overseas to get that investment?

And what happens after Brexit? We used to be attractive as a gateway to the EU, but if we hard Brexit that advantage will be gone. Financial services are already moving away. People say the ARM sale to Softbank is proof that Brexit didn't harm us, but maybe it's more like taking advantage of the devastating losses that the Pound suffered and realizing that intellectual property moves more freely than goods and services.

Re:The world's most popular subsidiary

[Anonymous Coward]

The model for UK businesses these days seem to be to sell themselves to overseas owners, and become a subsidiary. We have hardly any big companies left any more. Most of our manufacturing and services are foreign owned now.

Why are we so bad at investing in our own companies? Why do they have to go overseas to get that investment?

The UK has two economies. The old one was based around manufacturing and still survives as a rump, mostly (or at least disproportionately compared to the South East) in the North of England and Scotland. That economy is going to suffer from tarrifs and complex import regulations in other countries, but currently already suffers more because of the disproportionate support for the second economy. This economy may actually benefit in the longer term (say 20 years from now) from brexit. Not because Brexit will help but because of what will happen to the second economy.

The second economy is based around banking and housing speculation. The bankers sell a huge quantity (400B Euro / day) of euro denominated financial instruments of various kinds. They invest abroad and in property speculation. This is going to be destroyed completely. The EU politicians may have plenty of good will to deliver a good deal for the UK but the German banks will never let them. Imagine if a two bedroom flat (apartment) in Earlsfield, currently worth a minimum of £400k. Imagine if that fell to the same value as a house (with garden) in kinross (about £75,000). If you have a house in the South East, the next two years are the time to sell it. Fast; at any price you can get now.

And what happens after Brexit? We used to be attractive as a gateway to the EU, but if we hard Brexit that advantage will be gone. Financial services are already moving away. People say the ARM sale to Softbank is proof that Brexit didn't harm us, but maybe it's more like taking advantage of the devastating losses that the Pound suffered and realizing that intellectual property moves more freely than goods and services.

The UK has been living off the rest of the world's work. It is time to start to do our own dirty washing again. This is going to be painful. Given that the people who are causing the problem (the Brexiters) are mostly unable to accept the responsibility (there are a few honorable exceptions who clearly state they are willing to pay a price for what they consider is the route to freedom) it may even end up much worse as people start to blame migrants instead of their own stupidity and laziness. The last country to throw out it's immigrants, Uganda, had a collapse of it's agriculture. Imagine that we might actually return to the times of famine.

Singapore dollars =

[Anonymous Coward]

USD 1.75 billion
GBP 1.4 million

ctrip and qunar.

[Avarist]

Every Chinese peerson I knew all used qunar and ctrip was for foreigners who wanted to book trips to/from China. Outside of China I've always used Skyscanner with great content. I keep being amazed at how a simple website who just links you to other websites can be have so much value.