Skyscanner co-founder and CEO Gareth Williams said he agreed to sell the travel-search company to Ctrip in 2016 because the deal offered operational independence alongside a strategically useful partner. He pointed to Ctrip’s travel expertise, shared interest in improving travel search, and potential to help Skyscanner grow in China and globally. The acquisition was announced at approximately £1.4 billion and completed on December 9, 2016.
What was the Skyscanner deal?
On November 23, 2016, Ctrip.com International announced an agreement to acquire shares from Skyscanner’s majority shareholders and offer to buy shares from the remaining shareholders. Ctrip valued the transaction at approximately £1.4 billion, with consideration mainly in cash and the remainder in Ctrip ordinary shares and loan notes. The acquisition closed on December 9, 2016.
A formal offer document issued the following day put the value at approximately £1.426 billion under specified assumptions, including the exercise of outstanding options and other share arrangements. That conditional figure is more precise than the announcement’s rounded valuation, but it is not a separate, directly comparable cash price.
Contemporaneous coverage often rendered the deal as about $1.7 billion or $1.74 billion. Those figures are rounded dollar conversions; the company announcement’s pound sterling valuation is the clearest figure for describing the transaction.
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Why did Gareth Williams agree to sell?
He valued the promise of operational independence
Williams said the combination of Ctrip’s backing and Skyscanner’s operational independence was especially attractive. Ctrip’s announcement said Skyscanner’s current management would continue to manage its operations independently within the Ctrip group. In the formal offer materials, Williams also agreed to subscribe for new shares after completion and retain a shareholding.
That arrangement offered a distinction from a sale in which the acquired company’s management and operations are immediately absorbed into the buyer. Williams described independence as part of what made this particular partnership appealing; it should not be read as a guarantee that every business decision would remain wholly separate from Ctrip.
Ctrip brought travel knowledge and a shared focus
Williams said Ctrip brought “incredible knowledge” and shared “passion for solving the hard problem of travel search.” He characterized the partnership as a natural progression for Skyscanner, whose stated goal was to make travel search simpler for travelers around the world.
He also said Ctrip’s backing could help Skyscanner extend its reach and products globally, improve its understanding of China, and benefit from Ctrip’s product investments and insights. Those were Williams’s reasons at the time, not proof that each anticipated benefit was subsequently delivered.
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The sale followed earlier fundraising
In a contemporaneous VentureBeat interview, Williams said an earlier investment had helped Skyscanner grow in 2016 while providing “a measure of liquidity” to shareholders. He was describing that preceding investment, not the proceeds of the later Ctrip acquisition.
Was the sale chosen instead of an IPO?
Williams’s comments support the view that he preferred the terms and strategic access offered by Ctrip. They do not establish how close Skyscanner came to an initial public offering, whether an IPO was a live near-term plan, or whether the sale was the company’s only alternative. A strategic sale can provide liquidity and a commercial partner; remaining independent or listing publicly would have meant different trade-offs, but the available interview does not document a detailed comparison among those paths.
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What did Ctrip expect to gain?
Ctrip said the acquisition would strengthen long-term growth drivers by combining Skyscanner’s global positioning with Ctrip’s experience, technology, and booking capabilities. Ctrip co-founder and executive chairman James Jianzhang Liang said in the announcement that the acquisition would “strengthen long-term growth drivers for both companies.”
Ctrip CEO Jane Sun separately told Skift that the company intended to develop Skyscanner’s airline-ticket booking business globally, taking it beyond flight search. This was Ctrip’s stated plan in 2016; the announcement and interview alone do not establish how fully that plan was later achieved.
What figures were reported at the time?
| Figure | What it refers to |
|---|---|
| Approximately £1.4 billion | Ctrip’s rounded valuation in its November 23, 2016 announcement. |
| Approximately £1.426 billion | Value in Ctrip’s November 24, 2016 formal offer document, based on specified assumptions about options and share arrangements. |
| 60 million monthly active users | Scale reported by Ctrip in its November 23, 2016 announcement; not a current user count. |
| More than 30 languages | Availability reported by Ctrip at announcement in November 2016; not a statement about current language availability. |
The user and language figures describe Skyscanner as Ctrip presented it when announcing the transaction. They are historical company-reported metrics, not independently updated figures.
Quick Recap
Sources
- VentureBeat: Williams on the sale and his reasons
- Ctrip’s November 23, 2016 acquisition announcement
- Ctrip’s November 24, 2016 formal offer document
- Ctrip’s December 9, 2016 completion announcement
- Skift: Ctrip’s stated plan for Skyscanner booking
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