Priceline
Group CEO says his company didn’t get involved when HomeAway put itself
up for sale because “we’re quite picky” and HomeAway’s model of
allowing vacation rental owners to wait 24 hours before confirming a
booking and charging travelers a booking fee “just didn’t fit us.”
Expedia
Inc. announced that it would acquire HomeAway for $3.9 billion in cash
and stock. Asked whether the Priceline Group got involved in that sales
process, Darren Huston said:
“No. Although we’ve talked to them for years. We were very much aware
of it. We knew kind of how it was going. We did a little bit of thinking
and said this isn’t the right thing for us. We’re quite picky.”
