GOOD DAY, READERS.
Business travel organisation, Amex GBT, is set to earn Amex $1.5 billion - even though Amex hasn't actually owned it in 12 years. In 2014, the payments and financial services company gave Amex GBT as its share of a joint venture, while five other investors including Certares and Qatar Investment Authority, pitched in a total of $900 million.
Yesterday it was announced GBT is due to be sold for $6.3 billion to Long Lake Management, backed by big-name investors like General Catalyst, Thrive Capital, and D1 Capital. That is, if other bidders don’t emerge first.
Amex is a real winner here, but the losers from this deal include Expedia, whose stake is about $104 million below what the OTA originally recorded it as worth, and, potentially, Amex GBT’s workers. Long Lake’s traditional approach has been to first acquire traditional service businesses, then layer in AI tools. Whether the company’s 22,000 staffers will survive the efficiency drive of increased AI systems is yet to be seen.
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