Skift Take
The Priceline Group can acquire a restaurant reservations platform in OpenTable and add tons of vacation rentals to its Booking.com unit, but Expedia Inc. plans on sticking with its guns and focusing on the hotel business. Will that focus win out? Expedia certainly has been making strides, but this is still the beginning of the beginning.
Oh, Expedia Inc. has its hands full at the moment.
This is no time to focus on Airbnb-like sharing economy partnerships or even getting serious beyond testing and learning about vacation rentals through Expedia's 16-month-old partnership with HomeAway.
That was the word emerging out of Expedia Inc.'s fourth quarter and full-year earnings call February 5.
Asked about Expedia Inc.'s interest in acquiring or partnering with sharing economy companies, including HomeAway, Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said his company is "very focused on our base business."
Mentioning Expedia Inc.'s struggling business in China, eLong, which notched a $27 million adjusted EBITDA loss in the fourth quarter, and Expedia's Trivago metasearch business, which grew revenue 68 percen
