Summary: Acquired trains its lens on the “second or third best acquisition of all-time”, Priceline’s 2005 purchase of Booking.com. Our heroes are joined by friend-of-the-show and former Jetsetter & Room 77 CEO Drew Patterson to help understand how this little-known startup from The Netherlands grew into the largest travel company in the world, with nearly $8B in annual revenue. Was this deal even better than Instagram??? We debate, hotly. Topics covered include: * The biggest startup you’ve never heard of (in the US), Booking.com, and its parent company Priceline (yes, the William Shatner Priceline) * Booking’s founding in Amsterdam in late 1996: by recent college graduate Geert-Jan Bruinsma * Skift.com’s Definitive Oral History of Online Travel * The travel industry's GDS's (“Global Distribution Systems”) and the development of Sabre * How Bruinsma raised the initial money for Booking: by emailing anyone he know who had an email address * OTAs ("Online Travel Agencies”) and how they operate; the "merchant model" versus the “agency model" * The role of search in online travel * Bill Gurley on Conversion: The Most Important Internet Metric of All * Expedia’s early flirtation with Booking, and decision not to acquire the company * Priceline head of M&A Glenn Fogel’s vision for how powerful the agency model for OTAs could become in Europe * Priceline and Glenn's 2004 acquisition of Active Hotels in the UK, followed by the 2005 acquisition of Booking for $133M and the combination of the two businesses into Booking.com * Booking’s incredible growth in the decade since the acquisition, from less than 20M room-nights to over 500M, and $7.8B in revenue in 2016 The Carve Out: * Ben: Scott Forstall talking about the original iPhone at the Computer History Museum * David: The Big Sick * Drew: Bloomberg’s Money Stuff by Matt Levine Sponsor: * Thanks to Silicon Valley Bank for sponsoring this episode. If you'd like to learn more or start a banking relationship, you can get in touch with Shai Goldman here.
