• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 16, 2008

Expanding its global reach, Expedia on Tuesday agreed to acquire Italy's Venere Net from Advent International and its founding partners.

Venere.com presently has relationships with about 29,000 hotels and bed and breakfast properties throughout Europe, as well as the U.S. The transaction is expected to result in the addition of over 10,000 incremental hotel properties in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to Expedia's global network of hotel offering.

"It will immediately expand our supply footprint in Europe, the Middle East and Africa," said Dara Khosrowshahi, president and CEO, Expedia, Inc., in a statement. "Acquiring Venere will bring a well-known, respected European consumer brand to the Expedia portfolio."

The deal is dependent on regulatory approval in Germany and terms were not disclosed.

Venere.com, which is focused on offering hotel reservations to European consumers, claims to currently be adding hotel properties at a rate of more than 1,000 per month.

Earlier this month, Orbitz Worldwide said its Orbitz.com and ebookers.com websites have replaced Expedia Inc as the travel agencies for Microsoft Corp's Internet arm MSN.com. The change, which Orbitz said could bring about 3.5 million visitors per month to Orbitz via MSN Travel, represented a blow to Expedia, which began life in 1995 as a Microsoft company.

Also this month, TripAdvisor, an operating unit of Expedia, acquired two popular travel properties: VirtualTourist.com, Inc., a user-generated travel content network, and OneTime.com, Inc., a travel booking comparison site.