Booking Holdings

Booking Holdings Inc.
Formerly
  • Priceline.com Incorporated (1998–2014)
  • The Priceline Group Inc. (2014–2018)
TypePublic
Industry
Founded1996; 30 years ago (1996) in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.
FounderJay S. Walker
Headquarters
Norwalk, Connecticut
,
U.S.
Key people
Products
RevenueIncrease US$26.9 billion (2025)
Increase US$8.83 billion (2025)
Decrease US$5.40 billion (2025)
Total assetsIncrease US$29.3 billion (2025)
Total equityDecrease US$−5.6 billion (2025)
Number of employees
24,300 (2025)
Websitebookingholdings.com
Footnotes

Booking Holdings Inc. is an American travel technology company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, that owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines including namesake and flagship Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda, Kayak, Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com, Momondo, and OpenTable. It operates websites in about 40 languages and 200 countries.

The company is ranked 243rd on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. The company primarily derives its revenue from commissions, with a small portion derived from advertising. In 2023, consumers booked 1.235 billion room nights of accommodation, 88 million rental car days, and 68 million airplane tickets using websites owned by Booking Holdings.

History

In 1996, Jay S. Walker founded Priceline.com Incorporated in Stamford, Connecticut, which launched Priceline.com, an online travel site, that used a Name Your Own Price bidding model.

On March 31, 1999, Priceline.com Incorporated became a public company via an initial public offering, making Walker, who owned a 35% stake in the company, a multi-billionaire. The company's original ticker symbol was "PCLN".

The company experimented with selling other products and services such as groceries, gasoline, home mortgages, and cars, but these offerings were discontinued in 2000.

In July 2005, the company acquired Booking.com for $133 million and was merged with ActiveHotels.com, a European online hotel reservation company, purchased by Priceline Group for $161 million in September 2004.

In April 2014, the name of the company was changed from priceline.com Incorporated to The Priceline Group Inc.

In August 2017, Kayak acquired the assets of Mundi, a Brazilian metasearch company.

In February 2018, the company changed its name to Booking Holdings and changed its Nasdaq ticker symbol to the current "BKNG".

In 2021, the company offered to acquire GoToGate; however, the deal was blocked by European regulators in 2023.

Management history

Jeffery H. Boyd was named chief executive officer in 2002 and remained in that role until becoming chairman in 2013.

Effective January 2014, Darren Huston was named chief executive officer of the company, replacing Jeff Boyd. In April 2016, Huston was forced to resign following an undisclosed personal relationship with an employee, and Boyd was named interim CEO.

Effective January 2017, Glenn D. Fogel was named chief executive officer and president.

Finances

The key trends for Booking Holdings are (as at the financial year ending December 31):

Revenue (US$ bn) Net profit (US$ bn) Total assets (US$ bn) Employees
2016 10.7 2.1 19.8 18,500
2017 12.6 2.3 25.4 22,900
2018 14.5 3.9 22.6 24,500
2019 15.0 4.8 21.4 26,400
2020 6.7 0.06 21.8 20,300
2021 10.9 1.1 23.6 20,300
2022 17.0 3.0 25.3 21,600
2023 21.3 4.2 24.3 23,600
2024 23.7 5.8 27.7 24,300
2025 26.9 5.4 29.3 24,300

Acquisitions

# Year Company Price Ref(s).
1997 Priceline.com
1 2004 Major stakes in Travelweb and Active Hotels
2 2005 Booking.com $135 million
3 2007 Agoda.com
4 2010 TravelJigsaw / Rentalcars.com
5 2013 Kayak.com $1.8 billion
6 2014 OpenTable $2.6 billion
7 2014 Buuteeq and Hotel Ninjas $98 million
8 2015 Rocketmiles
9 2017 Momondo and Cheapflights $550 million
10 2017 Mundi
11 2018 FareHarbor $250 million
12 2018 Minority stake in DiDi $500 million
13 2018 HotelsCombined $140 million
14 2019 Venga
15 2022 Getaroom $1.2 billion
16 2026 Libro (via OpenTable) Undisclosed

References

  1. ↑ "Booking.com: The largest selection of hotels, homes, and vacation rentals". Booking.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Booking Holdings 2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. February 18, 2026.
  3. ↑ "Booking Holdings". Fortune.
  4. 1 2 Weber, Thomas E.; Petersen, Andrea (April 1, 1999). "Priceline's Initial Public Offering Turns Founder Into Billionaire". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. ↑ Piskora, Beth (March 31, 1999). "Priceline Blasts Off – Online Ticketing Enterprise IPO Up 3 331%". New York Post.
  6. ↑ Brooks, Nancy Rivera (October 5, 2000). "Priceline.com to Put Gas Up for Bid on Web". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ↑ "Priceline Runs Out of Gas, Groceries". CBS News. February 26, 2000.
  8. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (2018). "The Oral History of Travel's Greatest Acquisition: Booking.com". Skift.
  9. ↑ McDonald, Michele (August 3, 2017). "Kayak acquires Brazilian travel metasearch site Mundi". Phocuswire.
  10. ↑ O'Neill, Sean (August 4, 2017). "Kayak Acquires Assets of Struggling Brazilian Metasearch Company Mundi". Skift.
  11. ↑ Josephs, Leslie (February 21, 2018). "Online travel giant Priceline Group changes name to Booking Holdings". CNBC.
  12. ↑ VANIAN, JONATHAN (February 21, 2018). "Why Priceline Group Is Changing Its Name to Booking Holdings". Fortune.
  13. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (October 3, 2023). "After Booking Deal Went Bust, Etraveli CEO Says Price 'No Longer in Play'". Skift.
  14. ↑ Lincoln, Kevin (January 19, 2012). "Meet The Man Who Turned Priceline Into A $24 Billion Company". Business Insider.
  15. ↑ Clampet, Jason (November 7, 2013). "Priceline Replaces CEO With Booking.com Boss". Skift.
  16. ↑ "Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston Resigns; Chairman Jeffery H. Boyd Appointed Interim CEO" (Press release). PR Newswire. April 28, 2016.
  17. ↑ "The Priceline Group Names Glenn Fogel CEO" (Press release). PR Newswire. December 15, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Booking Holdings Fundamentalanalyse | KGV | Kennzahlen". boerse.de (in German).
  19. 1 2 O'Neill, Sean (October 2, 2012). "Why Priceline's Purchase of Booking.com Was the Most Profitable Deal of the 2000s". Phocuswire.
  20. ↑ "Priceline Posts Profit, Buys Travelweb". The Wall Street Journal. May 3, 2004.
  21. ↑ "Priceline.com Acquires Asian Online Hotel Reservation Service Company Agoda". Reuters. November 8, 2007.
  22. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (May 18, 2010). "Priceline Acquires Car Rental Firm Travel Jigsaw As Part of Expansion Drive". Phocuswire.
  23. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (November 8, 2012). "Priceline.com Acquires Kayak For $1.8 Billion, Will Allow Kayak To Continue To Operate Independently". TechCrunch.
  24. ↑ Sharf, Samantha (June 13, 2014). "Priceline Reserves OpenTable for 2.6 Billion". Forbes.
  25. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (August 11, 2014). "Priceline Group Paid $98 Million for Buuteeq and Hotel Ninjas". Skift.
  26. ↑ Elahi, Amina; Karp, Gregory (February 19, 2015). "Priceline to acquire Chicago startup Rocketmiles, says report". Chicago Tribune.
  27. ↑ "The Priceline Group Completes the Acquisition of Momondo Group" (Press release). PR Newswire. July 24, 2017.
  28. ↑ O'Neill, Sean (August 4, 2017). "Kayak Acquires Assets of Struggling Brazilian Metasearch Company Mundi". Skift.
  29. ↑ "Booking Holdings Announces it has Signed an Agreement to Acquire FareHarbor" (Press release). PR Newswire. April 19, 2018.
  30. ↑ Cadell, Cate (July 17, 2018). "China's Didi gets $500 million funding from Booking.com parent". Reuters.
  31. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (August 13, 2018). "Booking Holdings Bought HotelsCombined for Only $140 Million". Skift.
  32. ↑ "Booking Holdings Agrees to Acquire Venga" (Press release). PR Newswire. May 2, 2019.
  33. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (November 12, 2021). "Booking Holdings Buys Getaroom for $1.2 Billion to Expand Partnerships". Skift.
  34. ↑ "OpenTable acquires Canadian restaurant reservation platform Libro". Retrieved July 14, 2026.