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IAC/InterActiveCorp acquires TripAdvisor

March 17, 2004 |

TripAdvisor Inc. is being purchased by InterActiveCorp, the Internet conglomerate controlled by media mogul Barry Diller. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

TripAdvisor Inc. is being purchased by InterActiveCorp, the Internet conglomerate controlled by media mogul Barry Diller. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

TripAdvisor manages an online travel search engine and directory, with clients including American Airlines, Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Orbitz, and Travelocity

In December it was called the seventh most-visited travel web site in the world by comScore Networks, with 5.2 million unique visitors monthly.

“Trip Advisor is a fine addition to both our extensive travel service offerings and our local group of services connecting customers to consumers with targeted information and offers,” Diller said in a statement. “We now have more than 80,000 merchant customers, a number that continues to grow significantly, and believe that the consolidation of these efforts across all our brands will only increase the value to all our marketing partners.”

Formerly known as USA Interactive, IAC has accumulated several top web brands in the past 15 months, including Expedia Inc., Hotels.com, Hotwire, Ticketmaster, and Lending Tree.

TripAdvisor was founded in 2000 and received $3.3 million in funding from Cambridge-based Flagship Ventures and private investors. CEO Stephen Kaufer last year forecast $15 million in revenue in 2003. The company said it achieved profitability in the third quarter of 2002. 

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