How a Small Spanish OTA Scooped Up 2 UK Travel Brands 50 Times Its Size

How did a small Madrid-based OTA that few Americans or Brits have ever heard of pull off the acquisition of two larger travel companies this week? 

I dug into the UK and Spanish company filings to understand what actually changed hands here.

First, the deal: The Spanish OTA is Destinia, and it acquired Travel Republic and Netflights from dnata, which is part of the Emirates Group, a state-owned aviation holding company in Dubai.

The numbers for their most recent reported fiscal year show the mismatch in size. 

Travel Republic: $162 million revenue, but losing $4.5 million annually with $10.6 mil