Interview: Expedia and HomeAway CEOs Talk Acquisition, Mistakes and Opportunities

Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says his company's $3.9 billion acquisition of HomeAway makes good on a mistake he made when Expedia spun off TripAdvisor in 2011: He allowed Expedia's acquisitions of vacation rental sites such as FlipKey in the U.S. and Holiday Lettings in the UK to get away with TripAdvisor's exit. In a Skift phone interview with Khosrowshahi and HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples from Austin, Texas [see a full transcript of the interview embedded below], some three hours after they announced that their companies were joining forces, Khosrowshahi said Expedia had been trying to build a competitor to HomeAway at the time but was "insanely jealous" of HomeAway's supply, "the businesses Brian was bringing under HomeAway's umbrella," and was "pretty frustrated at the speed and the execution of the HomeAway team." "So I'm making up for that mistake now," Khosrowshahi said. Asked whether acquiring HomeAway saves Expedia years in trying to ramp up vacation rental suppl