Cheap tickets sold for $425 million

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Monday, Aug. 13, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Hotel and car rental giant Cendant Corp. agreed today to buy the discount airfare company Cheap Tickets Inc. for $425 million in cash, the second travel-related acquisition this summer for the owner of such brands as Days Inn and Avis.

The deal calls for New York-based Cendant to pay $16.50 for all the outstanding shares of Honolulu-based Cheap Tickets, or 39 percent more than the closing price of its stock on Friday.

"The acquisition of Cheap Tickets supports our strategy of further penetrating the fee-for-service components of the travel industry," said Cendant Chief Executive Henry Silverman.

In June, Cendant said it would pay $3.3 billion for Galileo International Inc., which books nearly one third of the world's travel reservations over its electronic network, or global distribution system.