Starwood Hotels and Marriott International in $13.6bn tie-up

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide yesterday agreed to a higher $13.6bn (€12bn) offer from Marriott International, a proposal that trumped a bid by China’s Anbang Insurance.

The combined company will have more than 5,500 hotels with 1.1m rooms worldwide, giving Marriott a greater presence in markets such as Europe, Latin America, and Asia and allow it to better compete with apartment-sharing startups such as Airbnb.

Starwood, the owner of the Sheraton and Westin hotel brands, said Anbang’s proposal no longer constituted a “superior proposal” and under the revised merger agreement it was not allowed to engage in discussions with Anbang.