Geldof sells Deckchair.com as losses increase

Sir Bob Geldof's online travel business has been sold to a major rival after being hit by the dotcom decline.

Sir Bob Geldof's online travel business has been sold to a major rival after being hit by the dotcom decline.

World Travel Holdings has bought Deckchair.com for £3.2 million sterling (euro 5.1 million), and may have to pay a further £6 million (euro 9.6 million) depending on how well Deckchair performs over the next three years.

Last month, London-based Deckchair made 13 of its 51 staff redundant. The company was founded two years ago by Mr Geldof and Mr James Page, a former executive at Eidos, the computer games firm behind Lara Croft.

Mr Geldof invested some of the £7 million (euro 11.2 million) he made from selling off television production house Planet 24 to Carlton Communications.

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Deckchair, which offers online travel bookings for the business and consumer markets, was valued at £20 million at the height of the dotcom boom. It has more than 250,000 customers.

The acquisition was announced on the day Cardiff-based World Travel posted a pre-tax loss for the year 2000 of £6.85 million. This compares with a loss of £1.97 million for 1999.

World Travel says current conditions mean there are further opportunities to improve profitability and it continues to explore opportunities to expand services.

PA