Palo Alto, CA based online travel guide Ruba (ruba.com) has been acquired by Google and the Ruba team will be moving into Google Headquarters next week.

Ruba

The announcement was made by Ruba on their company blog, which says “Hi friends, fans, and Ruba community members – exciting news from the Ruba team. We are thrilled to announce our team will be joining Google!  As of Monday, May 24, we’ll be moving into the Google headquarters.”

Google has confirmed the acquisition, as per TechCrunch. How much Google paid for Ruba has not been disclosed.

Ruba was founded in 2008 as a user generated travel guide site by Mike Cassidy and Arnaud Weber. Members of Ruba can build and maintain their own guides as well as explore guides from similarly-minded travelers and professional tours added by tour operators.

CEO Mike Cassidy explains that ”I believe that it’s dramatically easier to gauge the travel personality of a reviewer when I can see a crisp collection of her favorite places. Once I’ve found an author I like, I’m really curious to see all the places around the world that she really likes.”

Tour operators receive profiles on Ruba where they can promote their tours. Visitors to Ruba.com have a choice of over 3,000 tours from industry leading tour operators.

Ruba has built up an enthusiastic community and fan following on social media networks, helped along by tight integration between the site, twitter, facebook and Google Maps.

Other than Ruba, Mike Cassidy has been the Co-Founder and CEO of three previous start-ups: Xfire, Direct Hit, and Stylus Innovation. The other Ruba co-founder Arnaud Weber was most recently a technical lead on the Chrome Browser at Google.

As for why Google has acquired Ruba, Google apparently plans to integrate Ruba into iGoogle, their personalized home page product.

While this news is sure to generate a few ripples in the travel industry as one more step in Google’s foray into the travel industry (City Tours, Hotel Price Display, and a possible ITA Software acquisition), the Ruba acquisition by and itself shouldn’t be given too much weight in this regard.

Let's hope they do amazing things with Palm

HP”s purchase of  Palm indicates the battle lines in upcoming smart phone mobile are drawn:

Apple has a big early lead with consumers, but is closed. Google is open and committed to subsidizing Android OS and anyone willing to build on it until they win. Blackberry has a huge lead in the corporate world, but is crippled by its inability to move to new paradigms. Now, HP with its vast physical retail distribution, powerful consumer & corporate brand and its recent acquisition of Palm and the Palm OS) is moving into the fray. Oh yeah, Microsoft is also out there somewhere, maybe planning a surprise attack?

This will be a battle to watch. The question is who do you think  is going to win?

Related Articles:

HP to Acquire Palm for $1.2 Billion

By Grabbing Palm, HP Weakens Microsoft’s Hands

HP to buy struggling smartphone maker Palm for $1.2 billion

The $2.4b sale of theme park operator Cedar Fair Entertainment Co to private equity firm Apollo Management LP has been called off.

Cedar Fair amusement park

Last year in December, Sandusky, Ohio based Cedar Fair (NYSE: FUN) had agreed to be acquired by Apollo for $650 million and the assumption of $1.6 billion in debt, in a deal valued at $2.4 billion.

The company would be taken private, and Cedar Fair unitholders would have received $11.50 in cash for each Cedar Fair limited partnership unit, with the deal contingent upon approval by shareholders.

But Cedar Fair pulled out of the deal just ahead of an April 8 meeting to vote on the matter. This meeting has now been cancelled.

Apparently investors including Q Funding III LP opposed the deal on grounds that the $11.50 per share price undervalued the company.

This led to the impression that they had been made a better offer, and Cedar Fair LP (NYSE: FUN) actually started climbing on the markets, ending the day on $12.37, well above the $11.50 deal price.

Given the huge deals going down (see Blackstone’s $2.7b AB-InBev Deal), its entirely possible they may get a better offer. But proof of that will come later in the summer, when the theme park crowds start surging in. Or not.

As of now, Cedar Fair has no other takers. In between December and now, Cedar Fair contacted 32 different parties to see if they could get a better offer, but nobody expressed any interest. And they have now let go of the one offer they had in their hand.

This leaves them with the distasteful task of having to refinance the massive debt, with around $700 million in maturities by 2012. This is going to happen only if the theme park sector in general, and Cedar Fair in particular, manages to dramatically improve performance over 2009.

Failing that, Cedar Fair will have two options – start selling individual parks in an effort to keep lenders at bay, or go down the Six Flags route. In fact, Q Funding has been approached by Six Flags for a possible merger between Six Flags and Cedar Fair.

Irrespective of which option Cedar Fair ends up with, it’s still a big gamble to give up a deal to cash in when your neck is on the line, based on the thin hope that the economy improves.

Photo by Chris Light

BedandBreakfast.com delivers value to HomeAway

The acquisition of  Bedandbreakfast.com by Homeaway is HomeAway’s  first online travel acquisition of 2010. Is there more to come?

Exciting news from one of online travel’s hotbeds – Austin TX. It looks like  HomeAway is using its pre-IPO stock to add complementary businesses. In the case of B&B.com, we hypothesize the fit makes sense because B&B.com is: (also) largely a listing-driven business,  (B&B.com also has a burgeoning gift certificate business),  the bed and breakfast sector is also fragmented like vacation rentals,  B&B.com is the market leader, B&B.com is profitable,  has a very good management team and integrating B&B.com won’t  distract the HomeAway team.

HomeAway kept it quiet at Goldman Sachs

Homeaway’s CFO did not hint about this at the Goldman Sachs conference – as  expected from a company waiting on deck for their IPO.

The B&B.com team has been quietly focused on executing their business for the last few years and they have done an excellent job! Mazel tov to Eric, John and the rest of the team!

Related posts & articles:

Press release

IPO rumor dismissed by HomeAway

Super  Bowl Advertising Homeaway Goes Downfield for BedandBbreakfast.com Acquisition