USA: What To Know About Marriott’s Starwood Deal

The announcement that Marriott International will acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide fits Marriott's brand-buying pattern of recent years, as the company grew its footprint by acquiring Gaylord Hotels, Africa’s Protea Hotels and Canada’s Delta Hotels & Resorts.

Those latter three deals were of a similar size and scope ($100 million to $200 million in total consideration, averaging approximately 10 times earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization), which Marriott President and CEO Arne Sorenson acknowledged during a first-quarter earnings call in May.

“We would love to do more deals if there are more deals in that meet those kinds of parameters,” he said.

Which brought Sorenson to Starwood—more specifically, whether Marriott had any interest in acquiring the chain.

“You can see there are quite profound differences between the deals we’ve done and that hypothetical transaction,” he said.

Not so hypothetical anymore, Marriott announced its intention to acquire Starwood for $12.2 billion, mostly in the form of stock. Here’s what you need to know about the announcement, the timeline of Starwood’s strategic review and what industry insiders think of the deal.