Venere.com Acquires Worldby.com

Venere.com has acquired the Italian online hotel booking agency Worldby.com from FINB S.A. and from the company's management team, whose members will continue in their current roles; it is foreseen that the two companies, while leveraging important technology and commercial synergies, will continue to manage independently their accommodation supply partners.

The acquisition consolidates venere.com's position as one of Europe's leading online reservations operators and the Italian market leader, delivering an additional 2.5 million registered users - almost doubling its customer base since the time of Advent International's 60% controlling investment in November 2006 - and adding a further 6,000 properties to its existing 20,000 throughout the world. It is foreseen that in 2008 the group will generate gross bookings in excess of EUR500 million. The online hotel reservations market is one of the fastest-growing segments of the EUR200+ billion European travel industry, in itself the largest and most attractive travel market in the world.

Venere.com was founded in Rome in 1995 by four local entrepreneurs: the first mover and leader in the Italian online hotel reservations market, the company has since grown to become one of the largest players in Europe, with offices in Paris and London, affiliated hotels throughout the world and an internationally diversified customer base, with Italian users currently not exceeding 20% of the total.

Worldby.com has achieved a high level of search engine visibility through its successful use of '-by' domains, such as Scotlandby.com and Parisby.com, creating an extremely valuable online asset. The company provides a simple structure that allows customers to book accommodation online in few clicks. It also offers a high degree of personalisation, which is unusual in this industry, together with a wider range of accommodation than is generally offered by large online booking services; indeed, along with large hotel chains and independent hotels, Worldby.com also features a lot of non-conventional accommodations such as b&bs, villas, apartments, castles, farmhouses, boat houses and chalet.

Marco Ficarra, CEO venere.com, commented: "The acquisition of Worldby.com allows us to consolidate our already strong leadership of the Italian market while continuing our ascent up European and international rankings, where we have rapidly achieved top competitive ratings. Our goal is to be recognised by users and by partner hotels as the most valued online hotel reservations site, thanks to our agency business model and to the introduction of innovative tools specifically designed for the online community. This is another step on our path, via steady organic growth and buy and build strategy, to be recognized as a very active international leader."

Stefano Galastri, CEO Worldby.com, commented: "We have long looked at venere.com as an example in our industry, and are very proud to be able to plan our future, and that of our hotel partners, with the potential that we think we can now unleash within the new group; our tailored services can prove to be beneficial to venere.com, as well, with an even broader scale and impact than for Worldby."