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Eyeing An IPO, Kayak Adds HomeAway Founder And CEO Brian Sharples To Board

Leena Rao

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Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
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Travel search engine Kayak has is announcing a new board member today—HomeAway Founder and CEO Brian Sharples. He joins fellow Kayak board members Michael Moritz, Joel Cutler, Terrell Jones, Hendrik Nelis, and Gregory Stanger

Sharples co-founded vacation rentals giant HomeAway in February 2005 and helped lead the company to a public offering in June 2011. Prior to HomeAway, he was president and chief executive officer of marketing and data research company IntelliQuest Information Group, helped complete two public offerings and the sale of Intelliquest.

Of course, considering Sharples’ experience in online travel space as well as taking a technology company public, the appointment makes sense. Kayak has been eyeing a public offering for over a year now, filing its S-1 in 2010. As AllThingsD reported in September, the company put its IPO on hold until market conditions improved.

In a recent S-1 filing, the company revealed that revenue and profits are up. Kayak posted $61.16 million in revenue in Q3, up 28 percent from the same quarter in 2010. The company also increased revenue slightly from the second quarter 2011, which came in at $56.7 million. Net income for the third quarter 2011 was $12.7 million, up 44 percent from the same quarter in 2010, in which net income was $8.7 million. Profits were up from $5.7 million in the second quarter of 2011.

One obstacle that could stunt Kayak’s growth is Google’s entry in the space with it its flight bookings and search portal. But clearly by adding Sharples to the board, Kayak could be getting more serious about a 2012 public offering.


Crunchbase

Company: KAYAK
Website: kayak.com
Launch Date: January 14, 2004
IPO: NASDAQ:KYAK

KAYAK is a travel search engine. It indexes hundreds of global travel sites to help you find the right flight, hotel, rental car or cruise line. Once you’ve found the way you want to travel, KAYAK allows you to choose from which site you want to make your purchases. The company was formed in January 2004 by co-founders of leading online travel agencies, Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia. The company co-founders include Steve Hafner (CEO) a co-founder of Orbitz,...

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