Travel booking site Expedia has acquired Austin based Home-Away for $3.9 billion, to boost its presence in the vacation rental market.
The Bellevue, Washington, company said it's paying roughly $38.31 in cash and stock for each share of HomeAway.
On Wednesday, HomeAway said both companies unanimously approved the deal.
If all goes well with stockholders and regulatory approval, it should happen early next year.
Expedia says it's excited to expand into the vacation rental market with Home-Away.
HomeAway says it has more than 1 million paid listings of vacation rental homes in 190 countries. Along with its namesake site, Expedia Inc.'s portfolio also includes Hotels.com, Orbitz and Travelocity.
"We have long had our eyes on the fast growing $100 billion alternative accommodations space and have been building on our partnership with HomeAway, a global leader in vacation rentals, for two years. Bringing HomeAway into the Expedia, Inc. family and adding its leading brands to our portfolio of the most trusted brands in travel is a logical next step," said Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. "We have tremendous respect for the HomeAway team and the business they have built. With our expertise in powering global transactional platforms and our industry-leading technology capabilities, we look forward to partnering with them to accelerate their shift from a classified marketplace to an online, transactional model to create even better experiences for HomeAway's global traveler audience and the owners and managers of its 1.2 million properties around the world."
"We could not be more excited about joining the Expedia family of leading travel brands and what this move means for our very bright future," said HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples, noting that the company has been moving toward a fully online bookable marketplace and closer to the type of transactional business model with which Expedia has experience. "We're eager to benefit from Expedia's distribution, technology and expertise, which will allow us to provide an even better product and service experience for our owners, property managers and travelers. In this way, I believe our combination with Expedia will turbocharge our growth and industry leadership for many years to come."
In after-hours trading, HomeAway's shares added 22 percent to $39.05. Expedia's shares rose 2.8 percent to $137.95.