Mergers and acquisitions—as well as spinoffs and splits—mark BTN's 29th annual list of the top corporate travel spenders in the United States. Allergan, previously known as Actavis, debuts at No. 44 on the Corporate Travel 100—after a March 2015 merger with the so-called "legacy
Allergan" doubled Actavis' net revenue to $15 billion—with a BTN estimated 2015 United States-booked air spend of $90 million. Watch closely, though. That ranking may slip significantly next year, as Allergan almost immediately divested its generic pharmaceuticals business to Teva
Pharmaceuticals in August. Dutch company Philips completed its split into separate healthcare and lighting companies; as a result, neither made BTN's list of big travel spenders.
Source: BTN's 2016 Corporate Travel 100
The tech industry has been active, as well. While Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle and other big technology names made similar showings compared to BTN's 2015 list, Hewlett Packard split in two, breaking out Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. While HPE remained in the Corporate Travel 100 this year, HP Inc. narrowly missed. HPE announced plans in May to spin off its Enterprise Services business as a standalone IT services firm, so that
transformation is far from finished. Ebay, a CT 100 staple for the last three years spun PayPal off as a standalone company last July and dropped out of the annual list.
Low Energy Environment
As tech and pharma spark change throughout the CT 100, the energy sector is burning its way down. After the sharp decline in oil prices, a couple of CT 100 mainstays have dropped off the 2016 list: ConocoPhillips and Paris-based Schlumberger. BP hung on at No. 90 this year, sinking from No. 62
the year prior. Industry giant ExxonMobil stayed securely on the list at No. 14 but descended five places upon BTN's estimate that the company cut $50 million in United States-based airline spend.
Great Expectations for 2017
Telecom network equipment maker Nokia merged with Alcatel-Lucent in January. Watch for that joined company on next year's list. And while Dell dropped from No. 48 last year to No. 67 this year, the computer hardware company acquired EMC, this year's No. 62, in early September
in a historic $60 billion deal to create the largest technology company in the world. The new Dell Technologies will surge in the 2017 rankings. Also in September, Bayer, No. 66 this year, agreed to acquire agricultural firm Monsanto for $66 million.