Monday, August 13, 2012

Google to buy Frommer's travel brand for undisclosed price to bolster offering of local reviews around world - @WSJ

Google Inc. is acquiring the Frommer's travel brand from publicly traded publishing house John Wiley & Sons Inc. for an undisclosed price in order to bolster its offerings of local reviews around the world.

The deal is expected to close shortly. Google hasn't yet decided whether the Frommer's guidebooks will continue to be published in print or whether they will eventually migrate entirely to online. It is also possible that the Frommer's brand could be melded into the Zagat brand.

"Our commitment is to keep things as they are today and once we combine operations, we'll know better what the future looks like," said Bernardo Hernandez, Zagat's managing director of product management, in an interview.

Wiley in March said it intended to sell Frommer's, because it no longer aligned with its long-term strategies. A spokeswoman for Wiley on Monday confirmed the sale.

Google acquired restaurant-review company Zagat Survey LLC in September 2011 at a time when Google wanted to gain more share in local-business ads. Google is battling such rivals as Facebook Inc. to capture consumers as they browse the Web looking for recommendations and other information.

"Consumers need fresh accurate information," said Mr. Hernandez. "When you add information you can trust to phone numbers and addresses as part of the Google search experience, it enables users to convert their intentions into actions."

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com