Heuking advises weekengo GmbH and its shareholders on the sale to trivago
A team led by Dr. Jörg aus der Fünten, Partner at Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek’s Cologne office, advised weekengo GmbH and its shareholders (founders and investors) on the sale of all shares to trivago N.V.
It is trivago’s and weekengo’s shared mission to bring travelers inspirational content, helping turn travel intent into exciting getaways. The combination will allow trivago to apply its marketing and product expertise to the weekend.com brand while leveraging synergies with trivago’s existing products. weekengo’s founders intend to further expand their platform and improve their products by using trivago’s brand recognition and extensive expertise in “travel tech.”
Travel startup weekengo was established in Düsseldorf in 2016 by founders Tobias Boese, Ralf Usbeck, and Tom Hülser as well as investor A&V Holding. Later, additional investors Travelzoo and Vilauma had taken out holdings in weekengo. Since then, weekengo has developed a package travel platform that operates under the weekend.com brand and is exclusively focused on weekend getaways. Operating in Europe and the U.S. with about 20 employees, the platform offers flight-hotel and rail-hotel packages as well as hotel deals through its apps and websites based on more than 20 million direct flights and 30,000 hotels at over 400 destinations. The weekend.com app is available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, and the U.S. and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.
trivago is a leading global accommodation search platform focused on reshaping the way travelers search for and compare hotels and alternative accommodations. Incorporated in 2005 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the platform allows travelers to make informed decisions by providing them access to a deep supply of accommodation information and options from hundreds of websites. As of September 30, 2020, trivago has established 54 localized platforms connected to over 5.0 million hotels and alternative accommodations in over 190 countries.
Counsel to weekengo GmbH
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Jörg aus der Fünten (PE/VC/Corporate/M&A, Project Lead), Cologne
Lena Pfeufer (Corporate/M&A),
Dominik Eickemeier (IT),
Svea Kunz (IT), all Cologne
Dr. Marc P. Scheunemann, LL.M. (Tax), Düsseldorf
Klaus Weinand-Härer (Tax), Frankfurt
