THE NEWS WRAP: Expedia acquires Orbitz and associated brands for about $US1.6 billion

Travel booking giant Expedia is buying competitor Orbitz for about $US1.6 billion ($A2b), Skift reports.

Expedia will acquire all of the Orbitz brands, including consumer brands Orbitz, ebookers, HotelClub, and CheapTickets.

The acquisition comes after the travel giant bought Travelocity last month for $280 million and Australian startup Wotif for $700 million in July last year.

President and chief executive officer of Expedia, Dara Khosrowshahi, says the company was attracted to Orbitz because of its strong brands and impressive team.

“This acquisition will allow us to deliver best-in-class experiences to an even wider set of travellers all over the world,” he says.

Slack growing fast

Corporate chat tool Slack says it has more than 500,000 people using the service every day, and that its user count grew by 35% in the first six weeks of the year, BuzzFeed reports.

Those stats have doubled twice in the last six months. The startup says it has $12 million in “annual recurring revenue” and hit $10 million in annual recurring revenue in record time.

Facebook thinking about life after death

Facebook will begin allowing its users to designate someone who they call a “legacy contact” to manage parts of their accounts posthumously, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Users can also choose to have their presence deleted entirely.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 110.24 to 17,972.38. The Australian dollar is currently trading at US77 cents.

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