Dead ahead, of course, is the pool representing its “liquid event” ”“ an initial public offering of stock.
As Kayak Software Corp. paddles toward an IPO ”“ one that promises riches for founders Steve Hafner and Paul English and the venture capital companies that backed them ”“ it is coming under renewed pressure from Internet-era icons and upstarts alike.
It was not so long ago that Kayak was the fresh face in a still-evolving online travel industry dominated by Norwalk-based Priceline.com, Expedia and Orbitz, where Hafner previously worked.
Since then, the company has only cemented its industry status, for the second straight year winning Webby award accolades as the best travel website, beating out TripAdvisor, Hipmunk, Jetsetter.com and Trippy.com.
The Webby awards drew more than 10,000 submissions this year ”“ Kayak was one of just 10 organizations to win multiple Webby awards, with other notable names including Skype and Sesame Street Muppets.
Kayak earned $9.7 million last year as revenue climbed by a third to nearly $225 million. At the end of March, Kayak reported having 170 employees, with Hafner leading its Norwalk headquarters and English its technology center in Concord, Mass.
Even as Kayak readies for an IPO, it finds itself in a battle with Google, which a year ago acquired the Cambridge, Mass.-based travel software engine ITA and has since launched flight and hotel search tools that compete directly with Kayak.
In SEC filings, Kayak concedes Google”™s flight search engine offers “significantly increased speed” due to its links with ITA, an issue Hafner took up at a conference sponsored last November by Sherman-based PhoCusWright.
At deadline, Hafner had yet to respond to a request for an interview made through a PR company.
“It seems to me ”“ I don”™t know for sure ”“ that Google must be using a different version of ITA software than perhaps someone like Kayak or Orbitz,” Hafner said to a Google executive sharing his panel. “It just seems faster. I”™m curious ”“ is that just an innovation or a capability that you intend to make commercially available to all your longstanding, loyal customers?”
Kayak cites hotel bookings as the fastest growing online travel category, with growth currently on an annual 11 percent rate of increase. In March 2011, Kayak added the capability for travelers to make hotel reservations through its U.S. website. As first reported by the Boston Business Journal, however, after Orbitz initiated litigation Kayak removed language touting its hotel booking capabilities from an updated IPO filing, without stating whether it was in response to legal pressure.
If the established titans are feeling pressure from Kayak, they remain mindful of the new generation of social media plays in the travel space. For its part, Kayak has more than 75,000 “likes” on Facebook.
“The Groupon audience is a very engaged audience,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia, speaking at the same PhoCusWright conference. “What we have to work on is to train the Expedia audience to buy a product in a different way than they are accustomed to. And I think that”™s the bigger challenge.”
