I’m excited to share some news about how TripIt’s mission to help “decrease the chaos, and increase the peace” for every traveler and business in the world just got a huge boost.
Today, we signed an agreement to be acquired by Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR) in a $120 million transaction (for details, see the press release). For those not familiar with Concur, it’s a company we’ve long admired that provides integrated expense and travel management solutions. Founded in 1993, they’re now a company with annual revenues of $300MM, a market cap of $3B, and over 10,000 companies and 15 million people around the world using their services. We’ve always respected their laser focus, the foresight to see new opportunities in the market, and the courage to embrace change and move faster at meeting market needs before anyone else.
This is where TripIt comes into the picture. TripIt brings a service millions of business travelers love, expertise in creating simple and intuitive user experiences, our fast, “do it for me” technology (the Itinerator!), mobile prowess, a new SaaS service aimed at businesses, and our 40+ rock-star team who can innovate and execute faster and smarter than the best of them.
This combined entity is great news for all of you--our loyal travelers, developers, partners, and business customers. Moving forward, TripIt will be able to develop and innovate faster, continue to offer great customer service, expand our customer base, and leverage the expertise and support Concur has to offer to solve the tough travel problems that still exist today.
So TripIt will continue to be offered as it is today, but better and more available to travelers and companies everywhere. All of our employees are now Concur employees and our offices are still here in San Francisco.
I’m invigorated. I see this as a new beginning. We climbed up the hill to this point, but we’re not resting on our laurels. There are more opportunities, challenges, and adventures ahead. With Concur we’ll expand our presence among current customers, tackle the unmanaged travel space, reach out to new geographies, and go where no travel company has gone before. Watch us. This next part of our journey is going to be a great one and I’d be honored if you join us.
Want to know more about the Concur and TripIt collaboration? Read Concur's blog post or take a look at our FAQs.
Good news for Tripit, which I love to death - DON'T SCREW IT UP!!!!
Posted by: Nick Triano | January 13, 2011 at 05:35 AM
ditto
Posted by: Torje Olsen | January 13, 2011 at 05:55 AM
Agreed
Posted by: ttrentler | January 13, 2011 at 06:53 AM
Agreed. I've never heard of Concur. I trust TripIt, but Concur will have to re-earn that trust. Hopefully it will be a good thing.
Posted by: Chris | January 13, 2011 at 07:08 AM
As a business consultant that travels a lot, TripIt is a great tool.
Wishing TripIt the best!
Shall I get ready for a price increase? Still no details.
Shall I be waiting for services to be dropped from my current suscription? Hope not.
Remember TripIt, you're the ones getting all the money and the benefits. We're the customers. If the P&L tells you to, you will not hesitate to screw us...I just hope you are bigger than that...
Cheers!
Posted by: Pete | January 13, 2011 at 07:11 AM
as on the early tripit users I'm delighted for you. Since my employer uses Concur for corporate travel, I know they need the help.
I really hope you get to spread your influence beyond tripit integration, the concur apps for booking and expenses etc. have some of the single worst UI's it's been my misfortune to use and thats saying something, since I used to work at IBM... as you know ;-)
Posted by: Mark Cathcart | January 13, 2011 at 08:02 AM
Ditto what Nick said:
"Good news for Tripit, which I love to death - DON'T SCREW IT UP!!!!"
So often acquisition is the death knell for a service or technology that I once loved. Don't let this happen to TripIt.
Posted by: Ruby S. | January 14, 2011 at 08:31 AM
I use the Concur solution at work and its the best business app available on the market. It makes it so easy for me as a traveller to book trips and create expense reports. Don't know much about TripIt but trust in Concur to make the service even better!!
Posted by: Joshua | January 15, 2011 at 12:00 PM
I've Tripit for the first time for may last trip. The experience was pretty good!
I look forward to using it as a matter of course in the future - let's hope it stays as good as it is now.
Posted by: Alasdair McLeod | January 16, 2011 at 07:53 AM
Good luck and I really hope you as TripIt can resist the assimilation of a huge corporation like Concur. I also have the misfortune to have to use Concur at my work, and that is not a pleasant experience..
Best wishes and fingers crossed that you can resist the assimilation and continue to be great!
Posted by: John | January 19, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Congrats -- well deserved! Please don't change a thing; love the service.
Posted by: Himmelsblog | January 19, 2011 at 01:56 PM
congrats guys - and keep up the good work. MAybe you can bring some of your UI skills to Concurs expense reporting/filing service, whic has the WORST user experience of any app I have to use regularly.
Posted by: Noah Logan | January 19, 2011 at 02:16 PM
Two of my favorite T&E brands. Excited to see how the two will be integrated to take travel and entertainment processing to the next level! Makes me want to become an expense incurring consultant again.
Posted by: Mirajbpatel | January 19, 2011 at 03:50 PM
Sadly, I don't know ANYONE who uses and LIKES Concur. In my experience, Concur was a nightmare. Its non-intuitive UI was a frustrating time-suck for anyone forced to "use" it. Screaming and swearing was common. I even had superiors who made their secretaries and assistants do it for them because everything took so long and was such a pain. I'm happy for the Trip-It folks, but not their users. Here's hoping for the best.
Posted by: peter crosby | January 19, 2011 at 04:31 PM
I love Tripit but it's a shame that out of $120m buyout, Concur didn't see the need to spend some of this cash on creating a better, more coherent brand identity for the new entity. It's a real nonsense.
Posted by: Spbyrne | January 19, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Concur is terrible.
Posted by: mike | January 20, 2011 at 04:04 AM
Like others above, I don't know anything about Concur, but LOVE Tripit. It alone is worth switching from a dumb to a smart phone -- by far the best, most useful Android app I have.
Please leave it alone.
Posted by: Michael | January 20, 2011 at 09:13 AM
Let's hope that Concur bought Tripit to gain the experience and expertize in building a great online offering. If the UI etc has to become integrated, please God don't let the Tripit one fall by the wayside - it is waaay better than Concur, which as everybody notes above, sucks.
That said, I do look forward to being able to just do my expenses direct from Tripit. Let's hope.....
Posted by: Tim | January 26, 2011 at 10:20 AM
Regretfully I agree on Concur. Lets see how TRIPIT fares in the Concur family as past integrations have not been good for traveler.
Will they still allow imports from their competitors? Usually they block.
I'll hold off renewing PROuntil I see.
Posted by: John Crawford | January 27, 2011 at 11:39 AM
I have to agree on Concur. Its UI is awful, just terrible to use. I don't know where they got the designers.
Posted by: Peter N. Steinmetz | January 27, 2011 at 01:05 PM
OMG! My favorite travel utility (TripitPro) joins my most hated travel garbage (Concur)! How sad. I will be canceling my Pro subscription at renewal.
Posted by: C T | January 27, 2011 at 10:27 PM
Do not screw this up Concur. Your reputation precedes you....and it ain't good.
Posted by: J.M.M | January 29, 2011 at 08:27 AM
Unfortunately i agree with you regarding concur..It has got terrible UI...
Posted by: Social Networking Website Design | February 04, 2011 at 01:19 AM
Show me a small, nimble company that has been acquired by a bigger, less customer-centric company with a terrible UI that has been able to "... develop and innovate faster...".
I hope TripIt is the first.
Time to start looking for a new travel utility...
Posted by: Dave | February 06, 2011 at 09:31 AM
I like Tripit. Concur is a mess. What a shame.
Posted by: Mark | February 07, 2011 at 08:06 PM