Yahoo Finance! (with help from Reuters) is reporting that Expedia shares are up on rumours of a takeover by Google. The source of the rumours is list as Susquehanna Financial Group. Apparently the call volume from clients is off the hook. This comes a couple of days after the announcement of integration between Expedia and Google Maps allowing for instant Expedia hotel bookings on the Google map page. What do you think - an April gag or a real chance that Google wants into Travel in the biggest way possible??UPDATE -looks like founder and ex-CEO Rich Barton agrees that should be a joke. Quoted in the seattlepi.com as saying that this deal was a "head scratcher" and did not make sense for Google who "does such a good job skimming all of the really high margin profits from the travel media business". I agree.
7 comments:
SOunds like a Joke. EXPEDIA is a scam (source: http://www.expedianews.com)
If Google decide to buy EXPEDIA it might be good for travelers. At least Google don't have such a bad reputation.
This is not a joke and should be taken serioulsy by Expedia's competitors. Another good buy if so for google who can encorporate Myspace with tripadvisor and Expedia and Google maps.
I would think buying a meta-search travel company would make more sense. It's more about connecting rather than content.
If Google were stupid enough to buy Expedia ( yesterdays travel site) then they would risk alienating about 70% of their current travel advertisor base, who consist of Expedia's competitors and suppliers direct. I agree with Adam, Google would be better of buying a Kayak type meta search.
Expedia has to be the slowest damn travel site around with 10 year old technology.....they are the polar oppoistite to Google
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