Expedia Inc. has acquired its travel-focused rival Orbitz Worldwide Inc. for $1.6 billion.

The deal will see see Expedia acquire Orbitz at $12.00 per share in cash, a premium of approximately 29 percent over the average share price for the five days up to and including February 11th. 

The Boards of Directors of both companies have approved the transaction, but the deal is still subject to approval by the shareholders Orbitz, as well as the traditional regulatory approvals.

President and Chief Executive Officer of Expedia Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement that Expedia is “attracted to the Orbitz Worldwide business because of its strong brands and impressive team” and that the “acquisition will allow us to deliver best-in-class experiences to an even wider set of travelers all over the world.”

Orbitz brands include not only its well known travel site Orbitz.com, but ticket booking site CheapTickets, cut price hotel/ flights/ car booking site ebookers and discount accommodation site HotelClub.

Orbitz has had a long history in the online travel industry. Based in Chicago and founded in 2001, the company initially started as a collaboration between five of the six major airlines and subsequently met with regulatory resistance at the time (opponents included Expedia.) Late the same year it was “cleared for takeoff” and went on to bigger and better things.

Orbitz floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007 (NYSE:OWW) and was named the 12th most popular travel booking site world wide in January 2014; of note excluding non-US sites and those primarily focused on hotel bookings, it ranked inside the top 10.

For Expedia, a company founded by Microsoft in 1996 but independent many years hence, it’s yet another acquisition under its belt in its efforts to become the world’s largest travel company.

Expedia brands (some original Expedia spin-offs, but most acquired by acquisition) include: hotel booking site Hotels.com, travel booking site Hotwire, online travel agent Travelocity, corporate travel management company Egencia, Chinese focused travel service provider eLong, European hotel reservation service Venere.com, hotel metasearch company trivago, the previously Australian owned and Asia-Pacific region focused Wotif Group, which includes Wotif.com, lastminute.com.au, travel.com.au, Asia Web Direct, LateStays.com, GoDo.com.au and Arnold Travel Technology, and several more.

Although not clear from the media release, given Expedia’s history of running multiple brands it is likely that Orbitz will continue to trade as a separate site.

Even thought the overall online travel market will still be highly competitive post Expedia’s acquisition of Orbitz, the deal may yet see some regulatory review as clearly, as per the brands listed above, Expedia continues to gobble up all of its competition piece by piece.

photo credit: Jetstar Airbus A320 in flight via photopin (license)