GeekWire Radio: Nick Hanauer and Rich Barton on investing, technology, open skies and big bets

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Nick Hanauer and Rich Barton are investors and entrepreneurs who have created and shaped some of the most significant companies in the Seattle region, and the world. They’re also friends, and we’re happy to have them both together in the studio this week for the GeekWire radio show and podcast. Barton is the co-founder of… Read More…

Egencia partners with Concur to make business travel simple

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In an effort to make business travel more seamless, Egencia is partnering with Concur, the Redmond maker of travel and entertainment expense management software. Users who book and manage trips through Egencia, the Expedia-owned business travel management company, will now have the option of using Concur Expense right from the Egencia website, and vice versa for customers using the Concur… Read More…

Personal travel assistant: Expedia updates mobile app with real-time itinerary

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Nearly 18 months ago, Expedia laid out a vision to become a “Web 3.0 personal travel assistant,” for the mobile world. Now, we’re seeing some of those plans come to fruition. In what Expedia is calling its “biggest mobile launch ever,” the Bellevue-based company updated its mobile app today with a neat new itinerary feature… Read More…

Microsoft, Expedia, others file complaint over Google’s domain name ‘land grab’

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Fairsearch.org, a lobbying group whose backers include Microsoft, Expedia, TripAdvisor and Nokia, has filed objections over Google’s attempts to take control of genric top-level domains such as .search, .fly, .map and more than 100 other extensions. Calling it a domain name “land grab,” Farisearch argues in its complaint to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and… Read More…

CFOs on the hot seat: Students tell Expedia and Zillow execs how they could improve

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Expedia’s Mark Okerstrom and Zillow’s Chad Cohen are accustomed to fielding tough questions from Wall Street analysts. But the chief financial officers were on a hot seat of a different sort last Wednesday as a group of accounting and business students at Seattle University presented their findings about both companies, sharing insights on everything from… Read More…

Florida court hands victory to Expedia, other online travel companies over lodging tax

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Expedia and other online travel companies won a crucial decision this week when the The First District Court of Appeals in Florida ruled that the travel companies do not have to impose hotel occupancy taxes. “Our members maintain the same ambition now as we did prior to litigation: to successfully encourage travelers and tourists worldwide to… Read More…

Expedia revenue hits $975M on strength of hotel business

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Expedia is flying high again. The Bellevue-based online travel giant today posted fourth quarter revenue of $975 million, a 24 percent increase over the same period in 2011. For the year, the company topped $4 billion in revenue, a 17 percent increase. Net income dropped to $6.9 million, down from $70 million for the same… Read More…

Turn your travel photos into a movie with Expedia’s ‘Find Yours’ app

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Toss out iMovie and Windows Movie Maker — Expedia’s new app is turning your travel photos into a mini-movie with a few clicks. “Facebook is already the world’s largest repository of travel pictures,” claims an Expedia press release. “Soon, it may become the world’s largest de facto travel movie studio.” As part of its “Find… Read More…

Expedia leads $30M deal in hotel search startup Room 77

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Expedia is leading a $30.3 million investment in Room 77, an online travel startup whose search service is designed to help people find the perfect hotel room. Though based in Mountain View, California, Room 77 has multiple connections to the Seattle online travel industry. Other investors in the company include Expedia founder and Zillow Chairman… Read More…

The top tech stocks of 2012: Shares of Expedia take off

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Super computers. Online travel. And marketing tools for real estate agents. Those were the hot segments in the Seattle tech sector in 2012 as Cray, Expedia and Market Leader each saw their stock prices more than double. Generally speaking, it was a solid year for tech stocks, with the Nasdaq up 14 percent on the… Read More…

John Malone re-elected to Expedia board one month after stepping down

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Less than one month after leaving the Expedia board, an SEC filing reveals that cable baron John Malone has been re-elected. Liberty Interactive Corporation, a stockholder of Expedia, has two seats on Expedia’s board. William R. Fitzgerald resigned on Dec. 18 and Malone was elected yesterday to replace him. It was a short time away from… Read More…

Expedia paying $632 million to buy majority share of German travel company Trivago

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Expedia is expanding its presence in Europe today with an announcement that it has acquired 61.6 percent of Trivago, a 7-year-old Düsseldorf, Germany-based hotel search company. Bellevue-based Expedia is paying $632 million for the stake, with the deal expected to close in the first half of next year. “We are very excited to join the Expedia,… Read More…

Barry Diller vows to support Expedia as long as he’s ‘sentient’

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Sometimes billionaires say the darndest things. That’s how we felt after reading the latest statements from media mogul Barry Diller who circulated a memo to Expedia staffers today after news hit that he planned to sell his stake in TripAdvisor and step down as chairman. You may recall that Expedia spun off TripAdvisor late last… Read More…

Expedia expands mobile app to include 200-plus airlines, 140,000 hotels

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While it was Priceline making headlines last week with its acquisition of Kayak, Bellevue-based Expedia has gone behind the scenes and revamped its mobile app to include flights and mobile-only travel deals for hotels. Launching today, the update is available on both iPhone and Android devices. The team at Mobiata, which Expedia acquired last year,… Read More…

Priceline acquires Kayak for $1.8 billion

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Priceline.com Inc. announced today the acquisition of fellow travel website Kayak. Priceline paid approximately $500 million of the consideration in cash and $1.3 billion in equity and stock options. This is big news for Bellevue-based travel giant Expedia, who will now have to compete against a stronger and more robust Priceline. In its earnings report released last… Read More…

Expedia shares soar 13% as profits beat expectations

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Shares of Expedia jumped more than 13 percent as the Bellevue online travel company reported stronger revenue and profits than analysts expected in part buoyed by hotel room sales in Asia-Pacific and Europe. (Stock price has been updated). Revenue grew 17 percent to $1.19 billion, while adjusted net income increased four percent to $188 million,… Read More…

Expedia to open onsite health clinic in partnership with Qliance

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Employers pay a lot to recruit and retain skilled workers. Now, at Expedia they are going the extra step to make sure they stay healthy. The Bellevue online travel giant announced today that it plans to open a new health clinic early next year in partnership with Qliance, providing easy access to medical care on… Read More…

App of the Week: FlightTrack goes free with useful little app

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Lots of frequent flyers are familiar with the premium FlightTrack apps, which offer a bunch of advanced features, such as calendar syncing, multiple flight tracking and SeatGuru integration, in addition to the ability to track the status of commercial flights. But what if you just want the basics without paying anything? Mobiata, the Expedia company… Read More…