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Online Travel

Oral History: Booking.com Catapulted Priceline From an Also-Ran to First

Dennis Schaal photo
Dennis Schaal

Photo Credit: Glenn Fogel (left), who was the business development and mergers guy when Priceline.com bought Active Hotels and Bookings B.V. more than a decade ago, is pictured with Skift Executive Editor Dennis Schaal at Skift Global Forum in New York City on September 26, 2017.  Skift

Skift Take

The acquisitions of Active Hotels and Bookings B.V., which led to the creation of Booking.com, transformed parent company Priceline.com, and online travel history. Take a look at Priceline's fourth quarter of 2005 financial results, and you'll be able to see the journey in process.

What was the financial impact of Priceline.com's serial acquisitions of Active Hotels and Bookings B.V., as it was known? Consider that in 2003, before either deal had taken place, Priceline, which was mostly doing its Name Your Own Price business, did $863.6 million in revenue. It was a weak rival to IAC Travel — primarily Expedia and Hotels.com — which notched $2.41 billion in revenue, and Orbitz at $1.65 billion. Travelocity, owned by Sabre and once the leading online travel agency, which had fall

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