Michael wrote about rumors of a Google/ Skype hookup April 1, a deal that would make a lot of sense. One that doesn’t are rumors that Google may be getting ready to bid for travel giant Expedia.
Expedia shares were up over 9% Tuesday and a further 1% Wednesday based on the rumors (chart above) for a market cap of $7.18 billion. Expedia stock is still down approx. 30% from its October 2007 peak.
Rick Aristotle Munarriz at Motley Fool makes a lot of sense:
I don’t put a lot of weight behind the pursuit of Expedia. I may have suggested last month that Expedia would look good on the arm of another search engine star, but that is mostly because of the attraction of Expedia’s Web 2.0 properties like TripAdvisor.com….As the paid-search leader, Google relies on travel portals like Priceline, Travelocity, and Orbitz Worldwide, to bid for placement on its travel-related search results. Things could get hairy if Google snaps up Expedia. Sleeping with the enemy is one thing. Paying for its fare and making a rival stronger in the process, is another…
Now that Google has the DoubleClick acquisition out of the way, welcome back to Google takeover silly season. Expect to see lots of left field speculation in the coming months as the market tries to work out where Google will next park some of its bulging cash reserves.