Austin, Texas-based HomeAway said it purchased Stayz Group in an all-cash deal worth USD 198 million. HomeAway is venture capital-backed online marketplace for vacation rentals while Stayz Group publishes Stayz.com.au, an online vacation rental marketplace based in Australia. Redpoint Ventures, Austin Ventures, Trident Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, American Capital and Google Ventures are the venture capital firms that back HomeAway.
The seller of Stayz Group was Fairfax Digital, a division of Fairfax Media Limited. Aside from Stayz.com.au, the purchase also included other platform of Stayz Group which are Rentahome.com.au, TakeABreak.com.au, and YesBookIt. For the year that ended June 2013, Stayz posted revenues of AUD 25.4 million, taken mostly from commissions since it employs a commission-based business model.
With the purchase, HomeAway is able to strengthen its footprint in the Asia Pacific Region. Two years ago, HomeAway also bought REA Group Limited's vacation rental business and launched HomeAway.com.au. Last year, the firm also made a minority investment in Tujia.com, a vacation rental company based in China. In July, HomeAway also got a majority stake of travelmob.com, a short-term rental website and last month, it purchased a majority stake of Bookabach, a vacation rental site based in New Zealand.
HomeAway Chief Executive Officer Brian Sharples said, "The acquisition of Stayz adds 33,000 additional Australian-based properties to the HomeAway network. It also provides HomeAway a strong momentum to our newly-launched pay-per-booking business, something Stayz has worked over the years to optimize. Additionally, they have demonstrated that a vacation rental business can generate attractive margins operating on primarily a pay-per-booking model, and we look forward to learning from their team."
Anton Stanish, Stayz General Manager, will continue to manage Stayz which will still be operating from its Sydney headquarters. Stanish said, "HomeAway is absolutely the perfect partner for us. By joining forces, our customers benefit from the global reach and technology leadership HomeAway can provide as the region's and the world's largest vacation rental company."
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