Just a year after commencing operations in the group buying world for hotels stays, Australia-based startup Getaway Lounge has been sold to NineMSN-owned Cudo.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Getaway Lounge will business will continue to operate under the cross-vertical Cudo brand as its travel specialist.
CEO Tim Hughes left the business at the same time as the company was sold and will take up a new position of vice president of marketing at Priceline-owned brand Agoda, based in Thailand.
Getaway Lounge was created in April 2011 [TLabs Showcase - Getaway Lounge], backed by Nine Entertainment, one of Australia’s large media groups.
Essentially the business has been sold to Cudo, a brand operated by NineMSN, a joint venture between Nine and Microsoft.
In its first year of operations, Getaway Lounge secured around 300 deals for members, entering a market which was growing rapidly throughout 2011 but is believed to have slowed marginally during the earlier part of this year.
Estimates by Telsyte put the size of the market at around AUS $500 million 2011, with it expected to grow by another 30% to around AUS $600 million during 2012 and AUS $1 billion by 2015.
Unlike other markets around the world, much of the group buying space in Australia outside of the usual Groupon/LivingSocial axis is owned by large media companies.
Spreets is operated by Channel 7 and Yahoo, while OurDeal sits in the Channel 10 and News Corp stable.
NB:Â Hughes will be stepping down as a Tnooz Node as a result of his move to Agoda. The team here wants to thank him for his contributions to Tnooz since September 2009. Cheers, Mr BOOT! 
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About Kevin May
The sale was announced on June 19 guys, a bit behind the clock on this one
@yuri – we’ve known for ages, was just tying it in with Tim’s new job…
cheers Kevan