Booking Holdings
Booking Holdings Inc. is an American company organized in Delaware and based in Norwalk, Connecticut, that owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines including namesake and flagship Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda.com, Kayak.com,
Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com, Momondo, and OpenTable. It operates websites in about 40 languages and 200 countries.
In 2017, 89% of its gross profit was made outside the United States – most of which used Booking.com.
In 2019, consumers booked 845 million room nights of accommodation, 77 million rental car days, and 7 million airplane tickets using websites owned by Booking Holdings.
In 2017, 93.4% of revenues were derived from commissions and 6.6% of revenues were derived from advertising.
The company ranked 216th on the 2019 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.
History
In 1997, Jay S. Walker founded the company in Stamford, Connecticut, which launched Priceline.com, an online travel site, that used a Name Your Own Price bidding model.In 1999, the company became a public company via an initial public offering, making Walker, who owned a 35% stake in the company, a multi-billionaire.
The company experimented with selling other products and services such as groceries, gasoline, home mortgages, and cars, but these offerings were discontinued in 2000.
On April 1, 2014, the name of the company was changed from priceline.com Incorporated to The Priceline Group Inc.
In July 2017, the company acquired the Momondo Group.
In August 2017, KAYAK acquired the assets of Mundi, a Brazilian metasearch company.
On February 21, 2018, the name of the company was changed from The Priceline Group Inc. to Booking Holdings. On February 27, 2018, the company changed its ticker symbol from "PCLN" to "BKNG".
Management
Jeff Boyd was named Chief Executive Officer in 2002 and remained in that role until becoming Chairman of the Board for Booking Holdings in 2013.Effective January 1, 2014, Darren Huston was named Chief Executive Officer of the company, replacing Jeff Boyd. On April 28, 2016, Huston was forced to resign following an extramarital affair and Boyd was named interim CEO.
Effective January 1, 2017, Glenn D. Fogel was named Chief Executive Officer and President.
Acquisitions
| # | Year | Company | Price | Ref. |
| Priceline.com | ||||
| 1 | Major stakes in Travelweb and Active Hotels | |||
| 2 | Booking.com | $133 million | ||
| 3 | Agoda.com | |||
| 4 | TravelJigsaw / Rentalcars.com | |||
| 5 | Kayak.com | $1.8 billion | ||
| 6 | OpenTable | $2.6 billion | ||
| 7 | Buuteeq and Hotel Ninjas | $98 million | ||
| 8 | Rocketmiles | |||
| 9 | Momondo and Cheapflights | $550 million | ||
| 10 | Mundi | |||
| 11 | FareHarbor | $250 million | ||
| 12 | Minority stake in DiDi | $500 million | ||
| 13 | HotelsCombined | $140 million | ||
| 14 | Venga |