Who Bought Whom in 2022

The business travel industry in 2022 may not have had the heated merger and acquisition environment that marked previous years, but among the deals that were struck were some big ones, including JetBlue Airways winning a bidding war for Spirit Airlines and Sabre acquiring virtual payment specialist Conferma.

The year's business travel M&A landscape also underscored a few other trends.

Hotel giants beef up. Some of the largest U.S. hotel companies struck deals in 2022, including Marriott International's push into Mexico's midprice sector with the acquisition of the City Express brand and Choice Hotels International's deal for Radisson Hotel Group Americas. Hyatt Hotels Corp. continued its push into the lifestyle segment with the agreed-upon purchase of Dream Hotels. 

The waning of the SPACs. Several major companies in 2021 announced plans to become publicly traded companies through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies, including American Express Global Business Travel, Cvent, Sonder and Wheels Up. Each of those companies are now publicly traded, but no new industry SPAC deals were announced after Rocketrip parent Mondee did so on Jan. 3, 2022. SPAC dealmaking making in the larger corporate world waned in 2022,amid closer scrutiny of SPAC performance and increased regulatory scrutiny, according to the New York Times. In fact, two previously announced industry SPAC mergers fell apart in 2022: HotelPlanner.com and Gett.

The following are all mergers and acquisitions covered by BTN and The Beat in 2022.

Travel Management Companies
JPMorgan Chase acquired Frosch Travel Group
Hess Corporate Travel merged with Maupin Travel
TripActions acquired Comtravo and Resia
Conlin Travel parent company NextTravel acquired Menno Travel
Corporate Travel Management acquired 1000 Mile Travel Group
ATPI acquired The Travel Authority
Gray Dawes acquired Ventur Travel
Reed & Mackay acquired Atlanta Agencia de Viajes

Aviation
JetBlue Airways agreed to acquire Spirit Airlines
Air India and Vistara agreed to merge, with Singapore Airlines taking a stake
Wheels Up acquired Air Partner and Alante Air Charter
Vista Global acquired Jet Edge and Air Hamburg

Lodging
Choice Hotels International acquired Radisson Hotel Group Americas
Marriott International agreed to acquire the City Express brand portfolio from Hoteles City Express
Hyatt Hotels Corp. agreed to acquire Dream Hotel Group
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts acquired the Vienna House brand from the HR Group
Benchmark Pyramid acquired Provenance Hotels
Blueground agreed to acquire Tabas

Travel Technology
Flight Centre took a majority stake in TPConnects
TripStax acquired Hotelzon and TapTrip
Thoma Bravo agreed to acquire Coupa Software
Snowfall acquired Psngr1
CDS Groupe acquired Rydoo's travel platform
Atriis acquired reTravel.io
CIBT acquired Viselio

Expense and Payment
Sabre acquired Conferma Pay
HRS acquired Paypense

Meetings Technology
Aventri and MeetingPlay merged and acquired Eventcore
Cvent acquired Venue Directory

M&A in Europe

BTN sibling publication BTN Europe covered several additional deals in 2022. Read about them below.

Travel Management Companies
Talma Shlomo Travel Solutions acquired Norad Travel Group
Chris Thelen acquired Eton Travel Group

Lodging
Tristan Capital Partners acquired a majority share of Raag Hotels
The Ascott Limited acquired Oakwood Worldwide
Palace Resorts acquired Baglioni Hotels & Resorts

Ground Transportation
The European Commission approved the merger of Eurostar and Thalys
DWS Infrastructure acquired Stagecoach Group
CMAC Group acquired Suntransfers and Here & Dare

Travel Technology
Meetingselect acquired Cyberdigma
Fleetcor agreed to acquire Roomex

— BTN Europe's Rob Gill contributed to this report. 

: Who Bought Whom in 2021