Showing a marked improvement in its second quarter results, online travel company Expedia Inc. has shared that net incom

Showing a marked improvement in its second quarter results, online travel company Expedia Inc. has shared that net income rose 30 percent to $95.5 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $73.4 million, or 22 cents, a year earlier.

Published: 10 Aug 2006

Showing a marked improvement in its second quarter results, online travel company Expedia Inc. has shared that net income rose 30 percent to $95.5 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $73.4 million, or 22 cents, a year earlier.

Acknowledging improvement in results in comparison with the first quarter, Barry Diller chairman and senior executive, Expedia Inc. said, “We’re still under construction for the kind of sustained growth we believe is very much in Expedia’s future.

“Apart from investing in operations, our continuing mandate is to grow free cash flow and sensibly allocate capital. We’ve completed the repurchase of 20 million shares of Expedia, Inc. common stock, reducing our outstanding share base by over five percent And earlier this week, the Board of Expedia approved an additional authorisation for 20 million shares,” said Diller.

“This quarter was a solid step in the right direction. We continued to execute and invest in our long-term initiatives, including our new platform, data warehouse, and other infrastructure efforts, while staying super-focused on driving continuous innovation for travelers across our brand portfolio,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive officer and president, Expedia Inc.

Gross bookings jumped 10 percent to $4.6bn. Domestic bookings were seven percent higher and international bookings rose 22 percent. Revenue rose eight percent to $598.5m from $555m.

The shares added $1.02, or 7.4 percent, to $14.84 in morning trading on Nasdaq, as per the information available. The stock has traded between $12.87 and $27.55 in the past 52 weeks, and dropped 42 percent since the start of the year.

Even with Expedia’s recent struggles “you can’t discount the fact that it’s still a cash-flow generating machine,” reportedly said Darren Chervitz, research director of Jacob Asset Management in New York. “They are still an attractive business, they are still the market leader,” Chervitz said according to Bloomberg.

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