Peter Thiel is leading a new round of funding for Airbnb, the five-year-old online marketplace for short-term rentals, at a valuation of $2.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal just reported.
That makes the company more valuable than, for instance, upscale hotel chain Mandarin Oriental, which has a market capitalization of $1.5 billion. And WSJ editor Dennis Berman notes that Airbnb’s new valuation is also about 40% of giant Hyatt Hotels. It was only last summer that Airbnb was valued at $1 billion.
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