German software company, SAP SE (DE:SAPG) (NYSE:SAP) , recently announced that Concur, the provider of integrated travel and expense solutions, has made an acquisition of its own. Concur was bought by SAP in 2014 for $8.3 billion. It has signed a definitive agreement to buy Hipmunk, a travel search startup.
The acquisition is the latest in the string of other investments which Concur has made to boost its functionality, including the takeover of TripIt, developing ExpenseIt and investing in ClearTrip. Adding Hipmunk’s offering to its portfolio will advance Concur's strategy to deliver consumer-grade products to corporate customers.
The transaction is expected to close next month. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed yet.
Founded in 2010, Hipmunk offers search services related to flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. Even in the highly saturated travel market, the firm has carved out a niche for itself as a travel search portal with a captivating interface, offering highly relevant features and functionality.
The startup was the first to increase the number of factors used for searching and sorting travel results for users. In fact, some of these factors, like duration, number of stops and hotel location, could be modified specifically to meet the needs of the business users that form the core of Concur’s client base.
Hipmunk is also an established leader in the revolutionary space of artificial intelligence-powered travel search and travel bots.
Though Concur is definitely the bigger of the two companies, Hipmunk brings a more traditional consumer-facing service to the table. This is especially relevant as Concur is more of a backend service provider.
Thus, this transaction will lend the tools and expertise to the two travel technology companies to stay afloat and keep innovating in the fast-paced travel landscape. These two firms will remain market leaders and disruptors, and might just offer an even more personalized experience in both leisure and business travel.
SAP is one of the leading companies worldwide that makes enterprise software for business operations as well as customer relations.
SAP currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) , Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ:CALD) and DST Systems Inc. (NYSE:DST) . All three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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