eDreams

eDreams ODIGEO
S.L.
Industry Tourism
Founded 2000 (2000)
Key people
 Dana Dunne, CEO, Javier Pérez-Tenessa, founder
Products flights, hotels, vacation packages, car rentals, cruises, travel insurance
Revenue €463.3 million[1]
Parent EDreams ODIGEO
Website www.edreams.com

eDreams is an online travel agency that offers deals in regular and charter flights, low-cost airlines, hotels, car rental, dynamic packages, holiday packages and travel insurance.[2]

The company accesses it´s airline seat inventory through Global Distribution Systems (GDS) like Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan, as well as through direct integrations with the Airlines reservation systems. It then compares, combines, filters and re-sells[3] this inventory to end consumers. In addition to its main product flights, eDreams also resells hotels, vacation packages, trains, and travel insurance. eDreams also collaborates with more than 450 airlines on 155,000 different routes as well as with more than 855,000 hotels around the world in 40,000 destinations.[4]

The company's CEO is Javier Pérez-Tenessa (Founder and Honorary Chairman),[5] and Gerrit Goedkoop is the company's Chief Operating Officer)[6] and Jerome Laurent (Chief Marketing Officer).[7]

History

The company was founded by Javier Pérez-Tenessa de Block, James Hare and Mauricio Prieto in Silicon Valley 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.[8] In the year 2000, the company moved its headquarters to Barcelona, Spain, and launched in the Spanish and Italian markets, becoming the first online travel agency to offer its services in Spain. Javier Perez-Tenessa served as CEO from 2000 to 2015. James Hare served as President and Managing Director Italy from 2000 to 2010.

In October 2006, the American Private Equity firm, TA Associates, acquired eDreams for €153 million, becoming the first Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) for an Internet company in Southern Europe and, at the time, the largest to date.[9] 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 online travel company in Europe, and among the top five largest in the world.[10] Javier Pérez-Tenessa was named CEO of eDreams ODIGEO.

In 2012, eDreams launched its free iPhone App. Numerous additional releases have included features such as the inclusion of in-app push notifications and travel guides for iOS and Android Devices. eDreams launched its free iPhone App [40] and has been releasing new features since then, such as the inclusion of in-app push notifications and travel guides, launched in June 2016 for iOS and Android Devices. In September 2013, eDreams ODIGEO acquired the travel search engine Liligo.[11]

In April 2014, the company completed its Initial Public Offering on the Madrid Stock exchange, which valued the company at around $1.5 billion.[12] This was the first ever IPO of an Internet Startup in Spain.

In December 2015, the company changed its headquarters in Barcelona and moved from the World Trade Center to new offices. The Call Center and Customer Care departments moved to Zona Franca while the rest of the departments got relocated to the centre of Barcelona in the Eixample district. [13]

eDreams has faced legal challenges in Europe, alongside other large Internet companies such as Google and Expedia. In 2011, the Italian regulator fined eDreams and Expedia for unfair commercial practices, due in part to pressure from offline travel agencies.[14]

In 2015, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) launched an investigation of price transparency, culminating with CAA's Director of Consumers and Markets Group, Richard Moriarty, stating: “We are pleased that eDreams and Opodo worked with us constructively and we welcome the significant number of changes they have made to their websites." [15]

In addition, eDreams has had several public legal disputes with some of the company's commercial airline partners. Most notably, Ryanair and eDreams have had a multi-year public relations battle, with Ryanair accusing both Google and eDreams of unfair practices [16] along with eDreams making numerous counter claims against Ryanair.[17][18]

In January 2015, eDreams announced a management transition with former Chief Operating Officer Dana Dunne replacing co-founder Javier Perez-Tenessa as CEO, and non-Executive Director Philip Wolf becoming Chairman.[19] The remaining co-founders departed soon after, with James Hare resigning from the Board in March 2015.[20][21]

At the 2016 British Travel Awards, the company's Opodo website won the "Best Flight Booking Website" award for the second year in a row.[22]

Revenue and Expansion

eDreams earns its revenue through the sale of its travel products and advertising.

In fiscal year (FY) 2011, eDreams was Europe's largest online travel agency group, with gross bookings of €3.9 billion, and more than 14 million customers worldwide.[23]

In FY 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.[24]

In the same year, the company's gross bookings were €4.15 billion [25] with over 8.7 million online purchases.[26]

In FY 2013, eDreams continued to be the largest online seller of flights in the world and Europe’s largest e-commerce company in terms of profits, with business volume nearing €4.4 billion [27] and nearly 9.8 million purchases.[28]

In FY 2014, eDreams had gross bookings of over €4.2 billion with over 9.7 million online purchases.[29]

In FY 2015 (ended in March 2016), eDreams had gross bookings of over €4.5 billion with nearly 10.7 million online purchases.[30]

The company also makes revenue by not refunding tickets for full service airlines and in effect profit here.

IPO and stock price

Independent Board Member James Hare (James Otis Hare II) oversaw the public launch on April 4, 2014.[21]

eDreams offered its stock at 10.25 Euros per share.[31]

That stock price had fallen to 1.02 Euros by October 24 of 2014, wiping out over one billion Euros of market capitalization.[32]

Some commentators called the launch “Europe’s worst performing IPO of 2014”.[33] eDreams moved quickly, asking their shareholders for authorization to “Discharge to Mr. James Otis Hare for the exercise of his mandate as director of the Company until his resignation as of 25 March, 2015.” [34] 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”.[35]

In June 2015, CEO Dana Dunne introduced a new strategy focusing on mobile, revenue diversification and customer experience improvements, which led to a strong turnaround in business performance.[36]

Dunne's new strategy caused that stock price to rise above 3 euros by January 2017. [37]

The above version of events has been disputed by Mr. Hare himself. He states that the following is a correct interpretation of the events: The Board of the Company, composed of Lise Fauconnier and Philippe Poletti, representing Ardian with Carlos Mallo, and Benoit Vauchy representing Permira, and Javier Perez-Tenessa and Mauricio Prieto, Founders, oversaw the public launch on April 4, 2014.[21] On the executive team, CEO Javier Pérez-Tenessa and CFO David Elizaga led the IPO process, while COO Dana Dunne took care of day to day business (all seen in this picture on the day of the IPO). In preparation for the company's stock market listing of April 2014, eDreams expanded its board of non-Executive Directors to include James Hare (eDreams co-founder retired since 2010), Philip Wolf (retired Chairman of PhoCusWright) and Robert Gray (Executive Director and CFO of UBM).[38]

eDreams shares initially listed at €10.25 valuing the company at over $1.5 billion, making it the first company in 3 years to IPO in Spain as the country emerged from financial recession.[39]

However, after 5 months the stock price had fallen by 60%, reflecting the shared challenges of a difficult European IPO market: "Dozens of other European IPOs have stumbled this year, as European markets continue to struggle to recover from the 2008 financial crisis."[40]

A year after the IPO, Mr. Perez-Tenessa, Mr Hare and Mr. Prieto resigned from the Board and from executive duties. Mr. Dunne was promoted to CEO.

eDreams asked their shareholders for authorization to “Discharge to Mr. James Otis Hare for the exercise of his mandate as director of the Company until his resignation as of 25 March, 2015.”[41], as is customarily done with any director leaving office. 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”.[42]

In June 2015, CEO Dana Dunne introduced a new strategy focusing even more on mobile, revenue diversification and customer experience improvements, which led to continued improvement in business performance.[43]

After implementation of Dunne's strategy, and the announcement in November 2017 that the company was seeking potential buyers, the stock rose to 5 euros by March 2018. [44] After 4 months of review, no adequate offers were received which led the stock to go back to 4 euros levels.[45]

Studies

eDreams performs studies related to the travel industry by conducting surveys to travellers and since 2012 has released the following studies: “Best Airports In the World” [46], “Best Airlines in the World” and “Best Hotels in the World” [47].

Awards

At the 2016 British Travel Awards, the company's Opodo website won the "Best Flight Booking Website" award for the second year in a row.[48]

eDreams has also won: eAwards “Best international website 2013”,[49] Premios Emprendedores “Featured company 2012”,[50] Premios Imán de comercio electrónico “Special interactive formats 2008”,[51] and Premio iBest “Best Spanish tourism and travel website 2001”,[52] eAWARDS (EMOTA), Best International Expansion 2014 and CFI.co “Best Online Travel Partner 2015.

eDreams was a finalist in the 2013 eCommerce Awards Spain in the “Best Spanish Webshop” category.[53]

In 2012 the company was a finalist in the following award programs: #IABInspirational in the “Digital advertiser of the year” category,[54] eCommerce Awards in the “Best travel and tourism platform” category,[55] Premios de Internet “Best company” category,[56] and in the European Business Awards “Best company” category [57]

References

  1. ↑ eDreams FY 2015/2016 EBITDA up 15 pct
  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". Skift. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  6. ↑ "Leadership - eDreams ODIGEO". eDreams ODIGEO. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  7. ↑ "Chief Marketing Officer)".
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ TA Associates Completes €153M Leveraged Buyout Archived 2013-01-16 at the Wayback Machine. (Last update: 10-28-2006, English)
  10. ↑ – Permira complete first buy-out for a year (Last update: 07-27-2010)
  11. ↑ – Le site Voyages-SNCF.com rachète Liligo
  12. ↑ Spain's eDreams Odigeo valued at $1.5 bln in IPO
  13. ↑ "EDR:Soc.Bol SIBE Stock Quote - eDreams ODIGEO SA". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-11-10. External link in |title= (help)
  14. ↑ Italian regulator hits Expedia, Opodo and eDreams with heavy fines
  15. ↑ Opodo and eDreams update their websites to improve clarity and price transparency
  16. ↑ Ryanair takes High Court action against Google...
  17. ↑ Response from eDreams to the statement by Ryanair
  18. ↑ eDreams hits back over Ryanair claims it is misleading consumers on Google
  19. ↑ eDreams ODIGEO appoints Dana Dunne as CEO
  20. ↑ James Hare, cofundador de la compañía, dimite como consejero de eDreams Odigeo
  21. 1 2 3 "HECHO RELEVANTE" (PDF). Edreamsodigeo.com. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  22. ↑ Opodo named “Best Flight Booking Website” for second year in a row
  23. ↑ Odigeo Achieved a Turnover of EUR 3.9 Billion in FY 2011
  24. ↑ eDreams Expands to 10 New Countries
  25. ↑ - ODIGEO Media Kit
  26. ↑ eDreams ODIGEO Consolidated Annual Report March 2014
  27. ↑ eDreams ODIGEO closes 2013 with business volume nearing €4.4 billion
  28. ↑ eDreams ODIGEO Consolidated Annual Report March 2014
  29. ↑ eDreams ODIGEO Annual Report 2015-2016
  30. ↑ eDreams ODIGEO Annual Report 2015-2016
  31. ↑ "After IPO, eDreams Odigeo shares plummet 75% in 5 months". Tech.eu. 2014-09-11. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
  32. ↑ "EDR:Soc.Bol SIBE Stock Quote". Bloomberg.com. 2016-06-09. Retrieved 2016-09-07. External link in |title= (help)
  33. ↑ "Down 60%, eDreams Odigeo shares try to escape post-IPO nightmare". Tnooz.com. 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
  34. ↑ http://www.edreamsodigeo.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2014/08/eDreams_ODIGEO-Voting_formAGM_2015.pdf
  35. ↑ http://www.edreamsodigeo.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2014/08/Annual_Corporate_Governance_Report_31March2015.pdf
  36. ↑ "eDreams Odigeo strategy begins to pay off". Tnooz. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
  37. ↑
  38. ↑ eDreams ODIGEO Board of Directors
  39. ↑ Spain's eDreams Odigeo valued at $1.5 bln in IPO
  40. ↑ "Down 60%, eDreams Odigeo shares try to escape post-IPO nightmare". Tnooz.com. 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
  41. ↑ "eDreams ODIGEO : VOTING FORM" (PDF). Edreamsodiegeo.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  42. ↑ "eDreams ODIGEO : VOTING FORM" (PDF). Edreamsodiegeo.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  43. ↑ "eDreams Odigeo strategy begins to pay off". Tnooz. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
  44. ↑ "eDreams Board considers strategic options". Travolution.com. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  45. ↑ "eDreams Stock Falls 7% after no suitable buyer found".
  46. ↑ "eDreams Reveals Best Airports in the World #BestAirports".
  47. ↑ "Survey says Europe's best hotels are on the Iberian Peninsula".
  48. ↑ Opodo named “Best Flight Booking Website” for second year in a row
  49. ↑ - Best international website 2013
  50. ↑ - Featured company 2012
  51. ↑ - Special interactive formats 2008
  52. ↑ - Best Spanish tourism and travel website 2001.
  53. ↑ - Best Spanish Webshop
  54. ↑ - Digital advertiser of the year
  55. ↑ - Best travel and tourism platform
  56. ↑ - Premios de Internet Best company
  57. ↑ - European Business Awards “Best company”.
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