After borrowing $4Bon the capital markets, Booking Holdings asked for government support to pay salaries (that, according to The Volkskrant, are on average, €47,000 a year/employee), but the loan may not be enough, and, according to an internal memo sent to employees, layoffs will be “probable.”
To survive the pandemic, Expedia is about to sell a $1B stake to the equity firms Apollo Global Management and Silver Lake Partners.
Emirates, together with Dubai Health Authority is conducting on-site rapid COVID-19 on his passengers before departing. The blood tests used are able to give results within 10 minutes.
In an email sent to hoteliers, HotelBeds has again extended the dates of force majeure to 15 May.
According to a recent IATA survey, 60% of travelers will return to travel within one to two months of containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to research by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), as of 6 April, “96% of all worldwide destinations have introduced travel restrictions in response to the pandemic.”
Did They Help? is a website that “tracks companies and public figures in terms of their actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Users can search the site for a brand or celebrity to see a positive or negative score of their behavior. Results include links to the specific actions or policies that contributed to a particular score, such as offering paid sick leave to employees (or not), donating medical supplies, or supporting food banks.”
Google is rumored to be working on a Visa-based smart debit card similar to the Apple card.
“When will be a good time to consider reactivating my campaigns?” Mirai asks. According to the Spanish agency, the period from March 15 to 31 saw a -88% decline in impressions YoY, -63% in CPC, -41% in conversion, but a +5% increase in CTR. As Mirai points out, however, the average CPA for these campaigns is still around 6.5%, one-third of OTAs commissions.
Stripe raised $600M and reached over $3B valuation. An IPO can be not imminent, due to the situation, yet it’s fair to say that Stripe, focusing on e-commerce, is actually benefiting from the lockdown.