Google buys flight information firm
5th July 2010
Search engine giant Google has agreed a deal to buy flight information firm ITA for $700 million (£467m).
ITA software helps airlines, travel agents and flight comparison sites to organise fares, flight and journey times.
Google beat off Travelsport, Expedia and Kayak who were all in the running for ITA.
The firm said it may consider enabling users to search directly for flights destinations.
So while searching for travel insurance and travel money, users may be able to look for flight information.
Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive, said: "What we're going to do is build new flight search tools that focus on end users."
It agreed to honour "all existing agreements ITA had with its partners" including its direct competitors such as Microsoft's own flight comparison website, Bing Travel.
Schmidt also said it did intend to begin selling flights to consumers.
Google said it saw the acquisition as "pro-competitive" and "pro-consumer" but said regulators would be likely to look at the deal.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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