The second UK agency takeover this year was facilitated by a U.S. hedge-fund.Boston's Baupost Group has supported TravelPerks acquisition Click Travel. The deal was announced Tuesday and gives Click Travel access to 2,000 more customers, including Red Bull. The Click Travel brand will be gone as TravelPerk integrates it, unlike the surprise TripActions purchase of Reed & Mackay in May.This announcement comes after yet another takeover in this mix. American Express Global Business Travel is still waiting for approval to purchase Egencia. We were not able to provide financial information on the TravelPerk deal.Come Join Us at Skift Destination and Sustainability Summit, July 21Baupost is a well-known financial company. Seth Karlman is the man behind it. He has an investing strategy that is described as the best time of day to invest. This is a fair assessment of how the pandemics have affected business travel, especially in the UK, where there has been a need for financial support.The fund manages $31 billion of assets. Baupost contributed some of the funding to TravelPerks' recent $160 million round. It is currently using part of that money for this acquisition. The terms of the deal are not known.Baupost was established in 1983 and has made significant investments in companies like Facebook, Alphabet, Google parent Alphabet, and Intel chip maker. It also holds stakes in several special purpose acquisition companies (or SPACS), such as Altimeter Growth Corp.Altimeter Growth Corp. 2's chair is Brad Gerstner, a long-time tech investor and travel writer. It also has Rich Barton, Expedia founder and Zillow CEO on its board. It announced in April that it would support superapp Grab to go public.Baupost did not respond when asked.Acquisition PerksTravelPerk has acquired a company that has survived the pandemic, and is based in Birmingham, UK.Reed & Mackay is a global company that serves high-end travelers and international organizations, but Click Travels clients tend to be small and medium-sized businesses. It has strong domestic clients and works with many public sector organizations. Click Travels customers include some divisions of National Health Service or the police force.It reported revenue of $363 million in 2020 for the year ending March 31, 2020, an increase of $328 million from 2019. Pre-tax profits reached $11 million from $8 million in 2019. Private equity firm BGF invested a multimillion pound in the agency in 2018.Click Travel has a similar technology focus as TravelPerk. It was started in 1999 by James McLean and Simon McLean. At first, it was missmarple.co.uk and focused on leisure travel before expanding into business travel. In 2009, it launched an online booking platform.TravelPerk will now have 650 employees, with 150 Click Travel staff joining. TravelPerk's largest acquisition is this, as it purchased NexTravel in January in order to expand its U.S. operations.Register Now for Skift Destination and Sustainability Summit, July 21
