Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes.
Nope.
Why?
Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
61–70 of 87 posts
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#62Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#63Any people here who know how Skyscanner compares to Google Flights?
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes this really is phenomenal news for Scotland. Here's hoping they were generous with stock and we see a new wave of angel investors emerge. According to https://angel.co/skyscanner-2 they last raised almost 200m at a 1.6b valuation. I wonder what kind of terms were attached to that. I'm guessing investors will have walked away with a pretty large chunk of the sale.
Through angel.co link, I realise that Sequoia Capital is major investor in them. I can't help but wonder how Sequoia Capital has a share in majority of exists/current "unicorn" companies.
Sequoia invested in Skyscanner after their earlier travel metasearch investment, Kayak, had been acquired by Priceline.
I gather they observed that Skyscanner was positioning themselves to become a leader in the areas where Kayak wasn't, particularly in China, and felt that their investment could help Skyscanner win in those markets.
Once again, it looks like Sequoia's judgement has been spot on.
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclaimer: I'm the Engineering Director for Skyscanner's Japan office. During my interview process, I had an hour session with Gareth, and since joining the company in February, have had several opportunities to work with him directly. He is a very kind person, and works hard to take care of both his team and our travelers. It's actually a core part of how we do business: the needs of the traveler come first, and ou…
> I'm the Engineering Director for Skyscanner's Japan office. Then you should probably learn the difference between a disclaimer and a disclosure. (Hint: when you disclose something, it's a disclosure.)
What a sad little man you are.
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
> happening here Does that mean you're living there? I'm curious what the prospects are like there. There's been more discussion lately about us Americans looking for work abroad. My wife is finally on board with making a move out of the US as a family, so I'm glad it's being discussed more.
There's some okay tech here - nothing like Seattle or San Francisco. The biggest difference is the market. Expect to get paid 1/3 to 1/2 of the US. --- EDIT that being said, contracting can pay well if you have the right skills and don't mind who you work for.
.. and pay considerably less for housing. Admittedly Brexit-related exchange rate changes make it look a lot less favourable now.
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#67Skyscanner is based in Edinburgh, with another large office in Glasgow. This is huge news for the Scottish tech scene, and will hopefully bring much needed cash to help it thrive. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening here in all types of tech. Sadly Scotland's other unicorn, FanDuel, looks set to close its hq in Edinburgh after merging with draft kings. However, that will probably release a lot of talent to h…
> happening here Does that mean you're living there? I'm curious what the prospects are like there. There's been more discussion lately about us Americans looking for work abroad. My wife is finally on board with making a move out of the US as a family, so I'm glad it's being discussed more.
I love living in Edinburgh, but I will admit that its startup scene is kind of tiny. There's a decent number of IT multinationals about though.
However, your biggest difficulty will be being an immigrant to the EU. These days it's a pretty damn arduous process.
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#68Wouldnt it be considered a conflict of interest if the original founder of Ctrip Neil Shen, later invests in Skyscanner as a Sequoia VC-raises its valuation and then gets it acquired by Ctrip.
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#69Skyscanner is based in Edinburgh, with another large office in Glasgow. This is huge news for the Scottish tech scene, and will hopefully bring much needed cash to help it thrive. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening here in all types of tech. Sadly Scotland's other unicorn, FanDuel, looks set to close its hq in Edinburgh after merging with draft kings. However, that will probably release a lot of talent to h…
> happening here Does that mean you're living there? I'm curious what the prospects are like there. There's been more discussion lately about us Americans looking for work abroad. My wife is finally on board with making a move out of the US as a family, so I'm glad it's being discussed more.
The quality of life in Edinburgh is very high.[1] It's a really fantastic place to live.
I think the tech scene is quite strong and growing - as well as the multinationals and start-ups, there are a lot of well-established small/medium tech companies based here, too.
[1] https://www.uswitch.com/media-centre/2015/10/edinburgh-best-...
Re: Skyscanner acquired by Ctrip for $1.7B
#70Skyscanner is based in Edinburgh, with another large office in Glasgow. This is huge news for the Scottish tech scene, and will hopefully bring much needed cash to help it thrive. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening here in all types of tech. Sadly Scotland's other unicorn, FanDuel, looks set to close its hq in Edinburgh after merging with draft kings. However, that will probably release a lot of talent to h…
> happening here Does that mean you're living there? I'm curious what the prospects are like there. There's been more discussion lately about us Americans looking for work abroad. My wife is finally on board with making a move out of the US as a family, so I'm glad it's being discussed more.
Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities in the world. Spent a year of University there, and visited it on vacation a couple months ago.
There's a pretty cool tech scene, much of it spinning off the University of Edinburgh (great school for AI). Also, a friend gave me a tour of the Amazon Edinburgh office while I was visiting- it's 11 years old (first non-US office), still growing and seems to be doing some neat stuff.
Real estate is different from America. People live in much smaller spaces and generally don't have yards if you live in a city. You'd have to accept that, or commute into the city. That said, Edinburgh is a beautiful city architecturally (the New Town especially). I also found the food to be pretty fantastic.