eDreams

eDreams Odigeo
S.L.
Industry Tourism
Founded 2000 (2000)
Key people
 Dana Dunne, CEO
Products flights, hotels, vacation packages, car rentals, cruises, travel insurance
Revenue €4.15 billion (2012)[1]
Parent eDreams ODIGEO
Website edreams.com

eDreams is an online travel agency that offers flights, hotels, vacation packages (flight + hotel), train tickets, and car rentals with localized sites across 33 countries and territories, offering prices in local currencies - Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada (English and French), Chile, Colombia, Germany, Egypt, Spain, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland (French, Italian and German), Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America (English and Spanish) and Venezuela – and one common website for the rest of the world in English.[2]

The company operates through computer reservation systems (CRS) like Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan, where they compare, filter, and re-sell.[3] eDreams also collaborates with more than 100 airlines on 60,000 different routes as well as with more than 250,000 hotels around the world in 40,000 destinations.[4]

The leadership team includes Dana Dunne (Chief Executive Officer), Philip Wolf (Chairman), Javier Pérez-Tenessa (Honorary Chairman) [5] Phillipe Vimard (Chief Technology Officer) and David Elizaga (Chief Financial Officer).

History

The company was founded by Javier Pérez-Tenessa de Block and Mauricio Prieto in 2000, with the support of European and American financial groups such as DCM-Doll Capital Management, Apax Partners, Atlas Venture and 3i Group, among others. [6] Javier Perez-Tenessa served as CEO from 2000 to 2015. In the year 2000, the company established its headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, and launched in the Spanish and Italian markets, becoming the first online travel agency to offer its services in Spain.

In October 2006, the American Private Equity firm, TA Associates, acquired eDreams for a value of 153 million euros, being the first Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) for an Internet company in Southern Europe and, at the time, the largest to date.[7] In July 2010, the European Private Equity firm, Permira, purchased eDreams from TA Associates for a sum close to €350 million. Permira became the majority shareholder of the company and in June 2011 eDreams ODIGEO was formed from the merger with Go Voyages and acquisition of Opodo and Travellink, becoming the largest travel agency in Europe, and the 5th largest in the world.[8]

In September 2013, eDreams ODIGEO acquired the travel search engine Liligo.[9] In April 2014 the company completed its Initial Public Offering in the Madrid Stock exchange, which valued the company at around €1,6 billion. This was the first ever IPO of an Internet Startup in Spain.

Revenue and expansion

eDreams earns its revenue through the sale of its travel products and advertising. In 2011, the gross bookings of the entire eDreams ODIGEO group were recorded at €3.9 billion, with more than 14 million customers worldwide.[10]

In 2012, the company continued its internationalization plan and expanded into 10 new country markets: Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand.[11] In this same year, the gross bookings of the entire ODIGEO group were recorded at €4.15 billion.[12]

Controversy

In March 2011, Italian regulator fined eDreams for unfair commercial practices.[13]

In April 2013, Ryanair accused eDreams of a misleading Pay Per Click practice.[14] In June 2014 German Court granted injunction against eDreams unlawful & misleading advertising Of Ryanair flights [15]

In June 2013, easyjet accused eDreams of misleading pricing against customers on easyjet flights [16]

The customer service department has been documented to cancel tickets without warning or issue a 'booking confirmation' when no ticket has been issued according to a recent article in The Observer UK.[17]

The Dutch government consumer organisation ACM (Authority for Consumers and Markets, nl:Autoriteit Consument en Markt) issued an official warning against Edreams in July 2014 claiming that during the booking phase of a ticket not all (unavoidable) costs are mentioned.[18]

Early 2015 the French company watchdog DGCCRF has sent files to justice, threatening with sanctions up to €300,000 and jail times up to two years.[19]

James Hare saw eDreams through its public launch on April 4, 2014. [20]

eDreams offered its stock at 10.25 Eurodollars per share. [21]

That stock price had fallen to 1.02 Euros by October 24 of 2014, wiping out around one billion Eurodollars of market capitalization [22]

Some commentators called the launch “Europe’s worst performing IPO of 2014”. [23]

eDreams issued the following announcement: “Effective March 25, 2015, eDreams ODIGEO (“the Company”) accepts the resignation of Mr. James Hare as an Independent member from the Board of Directors”. [24]

Slogan

The advertising slogan used by eDreams is: "Great trips start with great prices."[25]

Awards

Since its founding, eDreams has won the following awards: eAwards “Best international website 2013”,[26] Premios Emprendedores “Featured company 2012”,[27] Premios Imán de comercio electrónico “Special interactive formats 2008”,[28] and Premio iBest “Best Spanish tourism and travel website 2001” [29]

eDreams was a finalist in the 2013 eCommerce Awards Spain in the “Best Spanish Webshop” category.[30] In 2012 the company was a finalist in the following award programs: #IABInspirational in the “Digital advertiser of the year” category,[31] eCommerce Awards in the “Best travel and tourism platform” category,[32] Premios de Internet “Best company” category,[33] and in the European Business Awards “Best company” category [34]

References

  1. ↑ – eDreams Media Kit (English)
  2. ↑ – About eDreams (English)
  3. ↑ – Freyer, Walter: Tourismus: Einführung in die Fremdenverkehrsökonomie, 8. Aufl., Múnich/Viena, Oldenbourg 2006. (funcionamiento de CRS) (German)
  4. ↑ – Portfolio (Last update: 09-28-2012)
  5. ↑ Schaal, Dennis. "eDreams Shuffles CEOs and Appoints Philip Wolf as Chairman". http://www.skift.com/. Skift. Retrieved 21 February 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ – TA Associates Completes €153M Leveraged Buyout (Last update: 10-28-2006, English)
  8. ↑ – Permira complete first buy-out for a year (Last update: 07-27-2010)
  9. ↑ – Le site Voyages-SNCF.com rachète Liligo
  10. ↑ – Odigeo Achieved a Turnover of EUR 3.9 Billion in FY 2011
  11. ↑ – eDreams Expands to 10 New Countries (Last update: 09-04-2012, English)
  12. ↑ - ODIGEO Media Kit
  13. ↑ Tnooz, 9 of march 2011
  14. ↑ - Ryanair threatens legal action over eDreams PPC campaign(Last update: 27-04-2013, English)
  15. ↑ Ryanair press release
  16. ↑ Telegraph 14 June 2013
  17. ↑ - No seating room from eDreams
  18. ↑ https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/publicatie/13126/ACM-waarschuwt-voor-reiswebsite-eDreams/
  19. ↑ Le Parisien: Billets d'avion sur internet: l'Etat dénonce une fraude "quasi-généralisée"
  20. ↑
  21. ↑
  22. ↑
  23. ↑
  24. ↑
  25. ↑ "eDreams". eDreams. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  26. ↑ - Best international website 2013
  27. ↑ - Featured company 2012
  28. ↑ - Special interactive formats 2008
  29. ↑ - Best Spanish tourism and travel website 2001.
  30. ↑ - Best Spanish Webshop
  31. ↑ - Digital advertiser of the year
  32. ↑ - Best travel and tourism platform
  33. ↑ - Premios de Internet Best company
  34. ↑ - European Business Awards “Best company”.

External links

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