Points International Acquires Travel Booking Service to Showcase Additional Loyalty Commerce Platform Offerings
April 22 2014 - 8:00AM
Points (TSX:PTS) (Nasdaq:PCOM), the global leader in loyalty
currency management, today announced that it has purchased all of
the outstanding shares of Accruity Inc., the San Francisco-based
operator of the award-winning PointsHound hotel booking service.
"This acquisition is a unique opportunity for Points to continue
to bring new and innovative ideas not only to our Loyalty Program
partners but also to the broader loyalty industry," commented
Points' CEO, Rob MacLean. "The PointsHound Team has earned an
excellent reputation in the Loyalty and Travel industries by
developing leading-edge technology, strong loyalty program
relationships, and impressive consumer adoption, all within a very
short time frame. As we continue to expand the reach of our Loyalty
Commerce Platform, we see great opportunities to enable valuable
new offerings such as the PointsHound proposition to a wider
audience of Loyalty Programs and their millions of consumers
worldwide."
PointsHound is a loyalty-based, points-centric booking engine
designed for frequent travelers. PointsHound users gain access to a
growing roster of loyalty rewards currencies by booking with one of
over 150,000 hotels around the world, and in return, earn points
and miles in the loyalty currency of their choice. Launched
publicly in early 2013 with the backing of leading online travel
veterans, PointsHound is the first e-commerce business to address
the complexity of the current loyalty landscape: offering frequent
travelers the flexibility to choose where they earn, what they
earn, and how they earn in a simple and intuitive user
interface.
"At its core, the PointsHound proposition was designed to drive
incremental revenue to Loyalty Programs while offering
unprecedented value to loyalty program members," stated Peter Van
Dorn, Accruity CEO. "We are thrilled to be joining the clear
industry leaders to not only build on our early traction in travel
ecommerce, but to also help accelerate their expansion into new
verticals where we can deliver even greater consumer and program
value on a significantly broader scale."
MacLean continued, "Given the early stage of Accruity, we do not
expect a material impact to our 2014 financial results, and
anticipate only a slight increase to our ongoing operating expense
structure. However, the value to Points in this acquisition is
multifold: a great team with strong consumer, online travel and
loyalty experience; a California presence that we intend to build
upon; and a number of loyalty program relationships new to Points
that we intend to expand. We are very pleased to add this key
ingredient to our overall offering and we expect that our new west
coast team will become important contributors to the continued
progress on our Loyalty Commerce Platform and our efforts to open
up third-party access."
About Points
Points, publicly traded as Points International
Ltd. (TSX:PTS) (Nasdaq:PCOM), is the global leader in loyalty
currency management. Via a state-of-the-art loyalty commerce
platform, Points provides loyalty eCommerce and technology
solutions to the world's top brands to enhance their consumer
offerings and streamline their back-end operations.
Points' solutions enhance the management and monetization of
loyalty currencies ranging from frequent flyer miles and hotel
points to retailer and credit card rewards, for more than 45
partners worldwide. Points also manages Points.com, where
almost 4 million consumers use the only industry sanctioned loyalty
wallet to not only track all of their loyalty programs but also
trade, exchange and redeem their miles and points. In addition
to these services, Points' unique SaaS products allow eCommerce
merchants to add loyalty solutions directly to their online stores,
rewarding customers for purchases at the point-of-sale.
Points has been widely recognized among the loyalty and
technology communities alike. The Company was named the 4th
largest Canadian software company and the 40th largest Canadian
technology company by the 2013 Branham300
list. Points also ranked 40th among PROFIT
Magazine's top 200 Canadian companies by five-year revenue growth.
For more information on Points, please visit www.Points.com,
follow us @PointsBiz on Twitter or read the Points
Company blog.
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release contains or incorporates forward-looking
statements within the meaning of United States securities
legislation, and forward-looking information within the meaning of
Canadian securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking
statements"). These forward-looking statements include, among other
things, our guidance for 2014 with respect to revenue growth,
EBITDA expectations and reinvestment plans. These statements are
not historical facts but instead represent only Points'
expectations, estimates and projections regarding future
events.
Although Points believes the expectations reflected in such
forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements are not
guarantees of future performance and are subject to important risks
and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Certain material
assumptions or estimates are applied in making forward-looking
statements, and may not prove to be correct. In particular, the
financial outlooks herein assume we will be able to generate new
business from our pipeline at expected margins, our in-market and
newly launched products and services will perform in a manner
consistent with the Company's past experience and we will be able
to contain costs. Our ability to convert our pipeline of
prospective partners and product launches is subject to significant
risk and there can be no assurance that we will launch new partners
or new products with existing partners as expected or
planned. Other important risk factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially include the risk factors
discussed in Points' annual information form, Form-40-F, annual and
interim management's discussion and analysis, and annual and
interim financial statements and the notes thereto. These documents
are available at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release
are made as at the date of this release and, accordingly, are
subject to change after such date. Except as required by law,
Points does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statements made or incorporated in this press
release, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
CONTACT: Addo Communications
Laura Bainbridge
laurab@addocommunications.com
(310) 829-5400
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