Why Priceline Bought Kayak

By Tim Beyers – Nov 12, 2012 at 4:15PM

NASDAQ: BKNG

Booking Holdings

Market Cap

$120B

Today's Change

(-0.08%) -$2.66

Current Price

$3,514.86

Price as of April 25, 2024, 12:37 p.m. ET

Data is a very big business indeed.

While there's little doubt that priceline.com (BKNG -0.08%) paid a premium when it bid $1.8 billion for recently public Kayak Software (NASDAQ: KYAK), there's value in the search data Kayak possesses. Think about it. By querying every type of database imaginable in the quest for deals, Kayak's engine has built a storehouse of travel intelligence not unlike what Google (GOOGL -2.07%) has created in its indexing of the Web, and that's bad news for incumbents Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) and Expedia (EXPE 0.18%). Find out more in the video below.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Google at the time of publication. Check out Tim's web home, portfolio holdings and Foolish writings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.

The Motley Fool owns shares of Google. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Priceline and Google. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.