|
12 April 2011 ,
Written by Dhruv Tanwar
|
|
The US Department of Justice has granted its approval to Google's plans of acquiring ITA Software, thereby entering the travel search market.
In Google speak, users will soon be able to enter "flights to somewhere sunny for under $500 in May" into Google and get links, flight times, fares and links to sites to buy tickets quickly and easily. ITA Software, based in Cambridge, Mass. specializes in organizing airline data, which Google had proposed to acquire last July, and has now received an approval for the same from the US Department of Justice.
In a brief statement, ITA software said it would “begin work immediately to close the acquisition, and are committed to making the integration process as seamless as possible for our employees and customers. We are excited about joining forces with Google, and look forward to getting our teams together after close to start working on innovative new ways to make travel search easier.” Google said it will let ITA continue with business as usual and has formally committed to let its customers extend their contracts into 2016.
Jeff Huber, Senior Vice President, Commerce and Local said Google is confident that by combining ITA’s expertise with Google’s technology it would be able to develop exciting new flight search tools for all users. |