Travel + Leisure will be acquired for $ 100 million by a timeshare company. What exactly will it look like?
Timeshare company acquires Travel + Leisure
Wyndham Destinations has just acquired the popular travel publication Travel + Leisure from Meredith Corporation. Wyndham Destinations is a timeshare company managed separately from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
With this $ 100 million acquisition, Meredith Company will receive $ 35 million upon closing, with the arrears due to be completed by June 2024. The acquisition is expected to be neutral for the new Travel + Leisure Co. in the first year. two. This acquisition follows after Meredith Company reported a loss of $ 289 million earlier this year, given how hard the pandemic was hit.
Meredith Company will continue to operate and earn Travel + Leisure under a 30-year royalty-free renewable license relationship. The agreement also includes a five-year marketing commitment in Meredith’s brand portfolio.
As described, this agreement combines “the travel company’s portfolio of resorts, memberships and lifestyle travel brands with the world’s most trusted travel lifestyle content curator.”
According to Wyndham Destinations, it is accelerating its strategic plan to “build on its leading position as the world’s largest holiday club and exchange company and expand into new leisure and licensing markets.”
Michael Brown, CEO of Wyndham Destinations, describes this acquisition as follows:
“We have acquired Travel + Leisure, including access to its worldwide audience of 35 million loyal fans on various platforms and almost 60,000 club members, because it is in line with our passion and goal of putting the world on holiday. Over the past 18 months, we have laid the foundation to expand our footprint beyond our core business, and today we are adding one of the most trusted and influential brands through the acquisition of Travel + Leisure.
This iconic brand, coupled with authoritative content and a wide audience, will help accelerate and strengthen the growth of new capital-light travel businesses and services as we take the next step to expand our reach within the global leisure travel industry. brei. ”
Wyndham Destinations will be renamed as Travel + Leisure Co.
Not only will Wyndham Destinations buy Travel + Leisure, but the timeshare company will have a new name as Travel + Leisure Co., and from mid-2021, Travel + Leisure Co. will begin. shares on the NYSE under the symbol TNL.
With this change, we should expect new branded products from Wyndham Destinations, with the goal of growing the timeshare business, launching new branded travel services and expanding license agreements under the Travel + Leisure Group.
Help me understand this gain
The concept of companies buying media business in their ‘space’ is nothing new. Everyone has the right to earn their living as they please, so good for Travel + Leisure and Wyndham Destinations, I think.
That said, I can not help but find this whole thing a bit ironic. These companies are literally on the other end of the travel spectrum – Travel + Leisure focuses primarily on luxury hotels and exotic destinations, placing ‘travel inspiration’ as follows:
Meanwhile, Wyndham Destinations has part-time properties in Orlando that look like this:
Photo credit: Wyndham Destinations
Now, in all honesty, I assume Wyndham Destinations probably got a deal with Travel + Leisure, given the environment. Furthermore, I suppose the timeshare business has not been hit as badly as other businesses in the travel space as customers have been locked up for life.
Is this really a good fit in terms of cross-marketing opportunities? “Well, I would stay a week in the Four Seasons Bora Bora, but would rather buy a part-time job in Orlando for a lifetime?”
Personally, I feel very strongly about the timeshare business, but I recognize that others feel differently, so I will not even go into it about it. But I just do not understand that Wyndham Destinations is somehow trying to improve here, or if Wyndham Destinations wants the audience + of Travel + Leisure to go down.
The best comparison I can come up with is that it would look like Applebee to acquire Capital Grille and then label all restaurants as Capital Grille.
Bottom line
Travel + Leisure is bought by a large part-time company. The timeshare company will be renamed Travel + Leisure, and I hope the acquisition of the media company will increase its potential consumer base.
I still can not really make sense of this, as the two companies do not really complement each other.
What do you make of Wyndham Destinations’ purchase of Travel + Leisure?