Does anyone remember the ominous predictions of February. Tom Coleman advised everyone to watch USA Today for big news about YTB that will have everyone's head spinning? Well February came and went and March is almost gone as well and nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nyet!
- There was ton's of speculation as to what it was. The traditional travel agents could not imagine anything that USA Today might pick up except for a paid ad.
- One RTA emailed me and told me to look for the full page apology from Royal Caribbean to Scott Tomer; which was one of his demands before they would sell Royal Caribbean again.
- Another told me that USA Today had done an in depth interview with Coach and the news that YTB had sold $1 Billion Dollars in 2007 was going to be front page travel news.
- Still there were several others that approached me with the news that YTB was just finalizing the purchase of Travelocity.
Well here's how I think it went...HQ let a few Directors know that they were looking to buy a 2 man agency in Ontario to get the regulators off their back for the Canadian entry. The Directors passed it along to their downlines as YTB was looking into an acquisition and it has to pass regulatory approval. Then the RTAs and Reps talked amongst themselves and passed along that YTB was acquiring a huge competitor and it is almost through regulatory approval. And of course since everyone thinks the biggest competitor is Travelocity, it morphed into YTB was buying Travelocity and the news will be broken on the pages of USA Today.
The corollary to that was also another dose of bad information when Tom Coleman informed everyone that on the day of this announcement, many would make millions off the stock of YTB! Hey, I did not check lately, where is it at? Still firmly entrenched under a buck?
