Expedia 1st-qtr profit tops expectations

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April 30 (Reuters) - Expedia Inc on Thursday reported a first-quarter profit that exceeded analysts' expectations as it earned more money from people outside the United States booking travel despite currency fluctuations.

The online travel services company, which had recently fallen behind the Priceline Group Inc to become the world's second largest by bookings, earned $44.1 million last quarter, or 34 cents per share. Analysts estimated, on average, the company would earn 9 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Expedia's shares were up 4 percent in after-market trading.

The company, which owns the website that bears its name as well as Hotels.com, Hotwire and a host of other brands, said revenue increased 14 percent last quarter from a year earlier.

Gross bookings rose 19 percent, in part on growth at Expedia.com and Hotels.com, the company said.

Of this, U.S. domestic gross bookings increased 20 percent. International gross bookings, totaling $6.1 billion and accounting for 41 percent of bookings worldwide, grew 17 percent.

The company in the news release said it substantially completed the migration of its recently acquired Wotif.com website to the Expedia platform.

Expedia and Priceline have embarked on acquisitions sprees to dominate the online travel business, with Expedia recently buying Travelocity and announcing plans to purchase Orbitz Worldwide Inc.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in New York; Editing by Richard Chang and Steve Orlofsky)

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