Leading Indian online travel agent, Yatra.com, has acquired online hotel aggregator TravelGuru from Travelocity, another OTA, according to a company release. The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to Yatra, the acquisition would enable it to extend itself as a leading aggregator of hotels, with access to more than 6500 hotels in India and 72,000 hotels worldwide from Travelguru. However, it clarified that TravelGuru will continue to operate separately under its existing brand name. According to Yatra CEO Dhruv Shringi, the company hopes that the consolidation will help increase its customer base, widen its product portfolio and allow it to bundle solutions, offering better deals and value propositions to its customers. It would also benefit TravelGuru's hotel partners as they'd get access to Yatra's online and offline distribution network, he added. This is the second time that the company has been acquired. Travelocity had acquired TravelGuru in 2009 for an undisclosed sum, and had allowed it to operate as a separate company and brand. Before being acquired by Travelocity, TravelGuru had raised, in all, $25 million in investment from Sequoia Capital and Battery Ventures, and was a part of Times of India’s Private Treaties portfolio. It had acquired hotel bookings site, Desiya, for around Rs 100 crores, around $25 Million in 2007, which is an important contributor to its business. TravelGuru was also reported to have been acquired Expedia, but that deal was eventually denied by the company. We're definitely seeing some consolidation in the segment with bigger OTAs acquiring focused properties, as the hotel…
