EDreams

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. 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. 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.

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.

In September 2013, eDreams ODIGEO acquired the travel search engine Liligo.

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

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.

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."

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 along with eDreams making numerous counter claims against Ryanair.

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. The remaining co-founders departed soon after, with James Hare resigning from the Board in March 2015.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 and nearly 9.8 million purchases.

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

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

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).

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.

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."

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” [42], “Best Airlines in the World” and “Best Hotels in the World” [44].

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.

eDreams has also won: eAwards “Best international website 2013”, Premios Emprendedores “Featured company 2012”, Premios Imán de comercio electrónico “Special interactive formats 2008”, and Premio iBest “Best Spanish tourism and travel website 2001”, 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.

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