TripAdvisor Picks Up Jetsetter from Gilt

A little bit of property changing hands in the online travel sector: Newton, MA-based TripAdvisor is buying travel-deals site Jetsetter from Gilt, a New York e-commerce startup.

No terms were given for the deal, but BetaBeat reported last fall that Gilt had been shopping Jetsetter for $30 million-$50 million. The sale to TripAdvisor was also telegraphed last month by this report on the travel news site Skift.

The companies officially announced the acquisition Tuesday afternoon. TripAdvisor says Jetsetter will continue to operate in New York, where it has been based as a part of Gilt.

The Jetsetter buy fits into the pattern of small acquisitions typically seen from TripAdvisor. In late March, it bought photo-sharing app Tiny Post. Other acquisitions in recent years have included mobile app maker EveryTrail, search startup Wanderfly, and social media developer Where I’ve Been.

All of these deals point toward the transition that TripAdvisor needs to make if it wants to stay relevant in the future of the digital travel business.

It’s one of the big names from the early waves of online travel innovation, now operating as an independent, public company valued at nearly $7 billion (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TRIP]]) after spinning out from Bellevue, WA-based Expedia in late 2011.

Gilt, meanwhile, is selling Jetsetter as it navigates more turmoil in its once high-flying “flash sales” empire—the company has a new CEO, Michelle Peluso, who replaced founder Kevin Ryan.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.