Lastminute.com snaps up hotel firm for £12.1m

Lastminute.com has announced the £12.1m purchase of hotel booking agency First Option and sent its share price skywards with the news.

The deal will increases the database of accommodation that lastminute.com is able to offer to its customers, adding properties from bed-and-breakfast guest houses to five-star hotels.

Brent Hoberman, CEO of lastminute.com, said the deal represents the latest step in making "lastminute.com a part of people's daily lives".

The deal will give lastminute.com a physical presence at 21 UK locations, including railway stations and airports. As such the opportunities to cross-sell other lastminute.com products also increases. For example, the company will be able to offer hotel accommodation to a tourist arriving at a UK airport - and while they are at it can offer car hire, theatre tickets and even dinner reservations for that evening.

"Hotels is a product category which has seen great adoption by consumers online. This acquisition again accelerates our growth in the UK, our largest market, and moves us to a leading position in the online hotels category," Hoberman said in a statement.

Lastminute.com expects the deal to increase its hotel revenues by £60m per year.

Upon news of the acquisition shares in lastminute.com shot up 17 per cent to 235p, before levelling off and settling down.

The deal breaks down as £10.5m in cash and the remainder to be paid in shares.