Concur Acquires to Improve Reporting and Analytics

According to a recent report, the global business travel market is projected to grow 12% this year to $176 billion. Growth will be driven by the Asia Pacific region while European countries will remain stable. Here is a snapshot of how travel expense management company, Concur, is expanding rapidly in this high-growth market.

Concur’s Financials
Concur’s (Nasdaq:CNQR) Q3 revenues grew 23% over the year to $138.7 million, marginally shy of the Street’s projections of $139 million. EPS of $0.05 was, however, higher than the Street’s projections of $0.04.

Concur projects the year’s revenues to grow 23% as well and projected a net income of $1.32 per share. The company expects to end the current quarter with earnings of $0.39.

Concur’s Mobile Expansion
Concur continues to build its mobile offerings to cater to the growing demands of the segment. It recently released an apps marketplace, Concur App Center, that helps connect Concur’s offerings to consumers and partners. Upon its release, more than 30 partners announced the launch of the app to companies and employees.

Last quarter Concur also announced the acquisition of conTgo, a startup focused on location-based services with advanced mobile and messaging capabilities. conTgo’s mobile apps offer the ability to track, locate, and communicate with employees wherever they are. At the time of the acquisition, conTgo had more than 5,000 corporate customers with 500,000 users spread across 90 countries. Concur plans to leverage the acquisition to enhance its mobile applications and deliver new location-based applications that benefit companies and their travelers alike.

New Products in Travel Management
Concur continued to expand its offerings and last month announced the acquisition of TRX Inc. for an undisclosed amount. TRX offers travel data and mid-office technology solutions to travel management companies. The company’s data is used by client companies to provide analytics capabilities to their customers. With TRX, organizations can control their managed travel program and consolidate transactions held outside these programs by collecting information from credit card issuers and networks, back office travel systems, hotel suppliers, and airlines.

Through the acquisition, Concur will be able to strengthen its own travel and expense management operations by providing a seamless link between travelers and travel services to offer better booking and expense reporting capabilities. Concur plans to leverage TRX’s business process outsourcing and call center business units to improve its own operations.

Concur is also helping to promote innovation within the travel industry and recently announced the launch of a $150 million fund, The Perfect Trip, to help travel-related startups worldwide. It has already used this fund to invest in several new companies. Some of the investments made recently are in StayNTouch, a cloud-based solutions provider for hotels; Trover, a mobile app that enables travelers to share discoveries through visual media; and Yapta, a price tracking provider that analyzes airfares to provide the ability to rebook tickets at lower prices.

The stock is trading at $99.65 with a market cap of about $5.57 billion. It touched a 52-week high of $104.13 earlier this month.