After months of rumors, Marriott International has emerged from among a gaggle of potential bidders and is set to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and its 1,200-property portfolio.
Marriott will acquire the Stamford Conn.-based Starwood in a $12.2 billion dollar deal. The new firm will own or franchise over 5,500 hotels and 1.1 million rooms worldwide, making it the globe’s largest hotel company.
The price amounted to about $72.08 per share, a discount of about 4 percent to the stock’s price at the close of trading Friday. Starwood’s shareholders will get $0.92 Marriott Class A shares and $2 cash per share of Starwood.
Starwood shares were down 3.3 percent to $72.50 in premarket trading Monday, while Marriott shares were up 1.7 percent to $74.01
Starwood, the owner of brands such as W Hotels, St. Regis, Westin and Sheraton, has been on the market since April. Various suitors had reportedly entered talks with the company, including Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotel Group, Wyndham Worldwide, as well as three Chinese entities: Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels, HNA, the parent of Hainan Airlines, and China’s sovereign wealth fund. – Ariel Stulberg