In November we blogged about the announced sale of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide to Marriott International. We closed that post with this note: “Today’s news is a good reminder that the only constant in life is change.” And earlier this week we learned that Marriott’s purchase of Starwood Hotels has been amended. Proof that we were correct about changes!
Starwood had recently announced they received a superior proposal from a consortium of Anbang Insurance Group Co., Ltd., J.C. Flowers & Co. and Primavera Capital Limited. Marriott International increased their offer to Starwood in order to become the superior proposal once again. This is good news for Starwood stockholders, as the value of the deal just increased for them. This transaction is subject to the approval of stockholders for both Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and certain other conditions.
Brand names of the 1,270 Starwood Hotels that will be included in this merger include Sheraton, Westin, and St. Regis. Marriott’s hotels include over 4,300 properties worldwide such as these familiar brands: The Ritz Carlton, Courtyard, Springhill Suites, Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn and Suites.
Starwood has also announced that it expects to close on their spin-off of their vacation ownership business to Vistana Signature Experiences, Inc. and merger into Interval Leisure Group, Inc. on April 30, 2016. Fortunately for Starwood stockholders, Starwood says that no action is required by them for their stocks to merge into the 
new company. Owners of Starwood vacation properties will also not have to take any action during this time.
With the amended merger in the works, Marriott is set to become the largest world-wide chain of hotels. Time will only tell how the merger will affect all of the hotel brands that will now be coming under the Marriott umbrella. And perhaps the bigger question is, how will this merger affect the hotel industry as a whole?
