Theater geeks who text and tweet will be welcomed with open arms at this arts center

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At most theaters, concert halls and arts centers, guests are strongly encouraged to stow their cell phones until the performance concludes. But that won’t be the case at the Tateuchi Center, a 2,000-seat concert hall expected to open its doors in downtown Bellevue in 2014. The New York Times reports that the new facility will allow… Read More…

Expedia boosts ownership in eLong by gobbling up stake from Renren

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Expedia is investing more in China, a key market for the Bellevue online travel company’s international expansion efforts. The company today announced that it is paying $72.4 million to acquire Renren’s stake in eLong, one of the top Chinese online travel companies. In May, Expedia invested $41 million in eLong, giving it a 56 percent… Read More…

‘Closet revolutionary’ Rich Barton of Zillow on startups and swinging for the fences

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It was kind of fitting that on a night that the St. Louis Cardinals won game six of the World Series with a dramatic walk-off home run, that Seattle entrepreneur Rich Barton used a baseball metaphor to explain his startup ethos. The featured speaker at the GeekWire Meetup in downtown Seattle, Barton — who’s hit… Read More…

Shares of Expedia slip after weakness in airfare bookings

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Shares of Expedia fell more than five percent in after hours trading Thursday after the Bellevue-based online travel company posted earnings that disappointed Wall Street. The company boosted revenue by 15 percent and net income by 19 percent, but shares still fell. Revenue for the third quarter was $1.1 billion, up from $987 million during… Read More…

From CD-ROM to dot-com, Expedia celebrates 15 years

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Fifteen years ago, Expedia took flight under the wings of Microsoft as a maker of CD-ROM travel guides. Today, it is a giant of online travel, with more than 2,000 employees in Bellevue and a market value of $7.7 billion. Expedia celebrated 15 years in business last week with presentations by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and… Read More…

Expedia CEO: TripAdvisor spin off ‘on track’ and why Google is a threat

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Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi — speaking at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference in Las Vegas this week — said that the spin off of TripAdvisor is on track to be completed by the end of the year. The company announced in April its intentions of spinning off TripAdvisor, and Khosrowshahi stressed this week that the deal… Read More…

Expedia CFO Adler to step down

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Expedia Chief Financial Officer Michael Adler is packing his bags, and stepping down after leading the Bellevue company’s financial operations for six years. No reason was given for the resignation in today’s SEC filing, but Adler does plan to stay with the online travel company through the spin-off of Trip Advisor. He’ll be replaced by Mark… Read More…

Expedia’s mobile app downloads soar as revenue tops $1 billion

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Shares of Expedia gained seven percent today in after hours trading following news that the company posted a 23 percent increase in second quarter revenue to just over $1 billion. Net income also rose 23 percent to $140 million. The Bellevue online travel company also released some new metrics related to its mobile and daily… Read More…

Expedia, Groupon plan to partner on travel deals

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One of the veterans of online commerce, Bellevue-based travel giant Expedia, is announcing a partnership with daily deals site Groupon today to offer discounts on travel. The agreement is being announced today at the D9 conference, and Tricia Duryee of AllThingsD has the early scoop on the news. The companies say they will be able… Read More…