GLG News by Online Travel Agency and Industry Experts (North America)

Christopher DanePresidentHRG-Executive Travel Associates

There is no such thing as a good airline merger

January 18, 2008

Analysis of:Delta delays Comair sale as it explores merger hopes | www.ft.com

*Service will get worse...I know that is hard to imagine. *Fares will go up. *Communites will loses both Hubs, flights and jobs. *If it happens it will be Delta merging with Northwest and United merging with Continental and no one want US Airways

Hong JiangPresident and Chief Executive OfficerHJ Solutions, LLC

WiMax Adopted as a Worldwide 3G Standard

October 22, 2007

Analysis of:WiMax is 3G | www.wirelessweek.com

This is a significant milestone in the business sense.  So far, Wimax had been viewed as a threat to the incumbents from the left field.  With this approval by ITU, it begins to legitimize WiMax among the cellular incumbents.

Chicke FitzgeraldChief Executive OfficerSOLUTIONZ HOLDINGS

Is the travel pie still growing? Where are the GDS companies in non-air travel planning?

October 12, 2007

Analysis of:LeisureLogix Takes Back the Road with Its Personalized Road Trip Planning and Booking Tool | www.forbes.com

The GDS industry, which earns its money primarily from the travel agency community (both online and offline) booking airline tickets, has been said to be totally commoditized and destined for decline.  In 2005 (the last year that all reported their earlings publicly), globally the GDSs processed 1.3b bookings and earned $8.7b in Gross Revenues and yielded $774.1m in EBITDA collectively. The interesting statistic behind all of this is that out of the total US Travel market, which in the same year yielded 1.4b trips, of those trips, less than 10% of them were by air.  The balance of travel was by car, motorcycle, RV, train or bus.  Yet, the GDS companies do not have a product that addresses the drive market. For 2007 the Travel Industry Association reports that US spending on travel was $733.9b.  Of that, just 35% was sold electronically (which includes travel agencies and online agents). 

Hong JiangPresident and Chief Executive OfficerHJ Solutions, LLC

Is 2008 the Year for WiMax?

October 4, 2007

Analysis of:Chipset vendors jostle for position in WiMAX handsets | www.wimaxtrends.com

The strongest supporter of WiMax Intel has announced that it will embed its WiMax technology in the processor dubbed Montevina in May of 2008. Intel intends to establish their own Intel-based handsets as well. The biggest US WiMax operator Sprint Nextel also announced that they will deploy WiMax to cover about 30ish cities at around the same time. Sprint Nextel has selected Intel, Motorola and Samsung as its vendors. Motorola recently announced its WiMax chipset for handheld devices which is scheduled to debut beginning of 2008. Samsung has already gained two years of experience through the deployment of WiBro (Korean version of WiMax) with large Korean operators.  NextWave will release baseband chip with an integrated WiMax/Wi-Fi system-on-chip. Its WiMax interface will meet global TDD and FDD spectrum allocations from 1.7-3.8 GHz. 

Hong JiangPresident and Chief Executive OfficerHJ Solutions, LLC

Short-term and Long-term View of Motorola's Cell Phone Business

October 4, 2007

Analysis of:Motorola Back On Track | www.forbes.com

Over the long-term (five years and out), the low-cost Asian phone manufacturers are becoming more competitive with features and low cost, making it diffult for the large vendors to sustain their R&D in the US or Europe.  In the short run, the Asian manufactures are still more focused on the low to medium end phones as they grow their R&D capabilities for high end phones such as smart phones.  In addition, the iPhones and G-phones (By Google) will have their own brand and even their own subscribers.  They will outsource phone manufacturing and even design to Asia. (e.g., iPhones were manufactured in China)

Chicke FitzgeraldChief Executive OfficerSOLUTIONZ HOLDINGS

What is the real value of mapping and content aggregation players?

October 1, 2007

Analysis of:Nokia to buy Navteq for $8.1b, Take on TomTom | www.bloomberg.com

In July of this year TomTom acquired TeleAtlas for $29.39 per share or $2.7b USD (28x EBITDA).  Today, Nokia paid $78 USD per share or $8.1b for Navteq (35.7x EBITDA). What value can they both now extract?   With mapping services like GoogleMaps, Mapquest, Yahoo!Maps and even AAA's TripTik available via web enabled phones of all brands, what kind of differentiation is possible for Nokia in making this move.  Who is the real competition and what is the size of the pie that they are all after. Like any acquisition, the proof will be in the integration post transaction and the plans to make their tools ubiquitous.   The other challenge is to tap into the 88% of all Americans (and untold international users of Nokia's platforms) that use a car for the $1 trillion in leisure travel spending annually.  Less than $100b of this spending in the US is currently done by traditional online travel sites, such as Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity. 

Chicke FitzgeraldChief Executive OfficerSOLUTIONZ HOLDINGS

Is content king, or is it relevant content that matters?

October 1, 2007

Analysis of:BBC Acquires Lonely Planet | www.bbc.co.uk

BBC Worldwide bought Lonely Planet in a deal that insiders value at over $203m.  The question is whether content alone is enough to propel BBC Worldwide into the forefront of the $2.8 trillion global leisure travel market? Founders, Maureen and Tony Wheeler, will keep a 25% stake and presumably have been given a reason to stay around long enough to help BBC Worldwide figure out how to integrate it into their media empire.   Their take from the sale is reportedly  $143m.  This is the BBCs first major foray into the travel industry, but interestingly enough, they see themselves as just being in the content business, which could sell them short on monetizing the investment.  The deal will help the BBC become "one of the world's leading content businesses," BBC Worldwide Chief Executive John Smith said. The broadcaster also aims to grow online brands and to increase its operations in Australia and North America, Smith said.

Christopher DanePresidentHRG-Executive Travel Associates

Blackstone's Probably Won't Put Others in Play...

July 6, 2007

Analysis of:Will Blackstone’s Hilton Deal Put Others in Play? | online.wsj.com

* Blackstone/Hilton deal is unique on several levels * Hotel Industry metrics have probably peaked in terms of RevPAR. * New Construction in the piptline is at an all time high * Starwood's management is weak and no apparent strategy. *  Marriott is not about to sell the family business

Christopher DanePresidentHRG-Executive Travel Associates

Marriott Knows What They Are Doing

June 18, 2007

Analysis of:Strange Bedfellows: Marriott, Schrager | online.wsj.com

•Marriott is very good at managing multiple brands. •Marriott has successfully kept brands/cultures separate. •Marriott Needed a boutique brand. •Marriott has a history of success in developing brands.

Christopher DanePresidentHRG-Executive Travel Associates

Increasing CAFE standards is not the answer

May 7, 2007

Analysis of:CAFE Break | online.wsj.com

* CAFE  standards never had the intended outcome.
* relies on something to happen in the future when what is needed something for today.
*  Making car makers accountable for conservation rather than the end user is illogical.
*  Drivers are ultimately responsible for conservation.
*  The solution is to follow the Europeans...charge what the charge for fuel and invest that money into the highway and road infrastructure.

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