Expedia is an online travel agency founded in 1996 as a division of Microsoft. Expedia allows its users to search for flights, hotels, and car rentals in order to build a customized travel package with competitive rates. Users can also purchase cruise vacations and other activities. Customers have the option to make reservations either online or via telephone. Its main competitors are Priceline.com, and Orbitz. Expedia also receives referral business from travel search engines like Kayak.

The company spun off from Microsoft and became a multi-billion dollar business of its own when Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that the company was "no longer about software intensive technology" and concern arose that "they might not do their best at this", meaning travel sites. In 1999, the company broke away from the Microsoft umbrella and became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ.http://overview.expediainc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=190013&p=history

Expedia is the world's leading online travel company with local language sites in 19 different countries. Hotels.com, another piece of the Expedia group, has over 70 local country sites covering North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.http://overview.expediainc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=190013&p=history

In 2002, the company was purchased by InterActive Corp., where Expedia continued to grow and flourish before being spun off again in 2005 under theExpedia, Inc. brand. It now is the parent company of a group of travel companies itself.http://overview.expediainc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=190013&p=overview In 2005, the company introduced Hotels.com and TripAdvisor to the mix.

Like Microsoft, Expedia is headquartered in western Washington, in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue. The company posted gross booking revenues of $21.8 billion in 2009 and reported revenue of $2.95 billion for the fiscal year.http://overview.expediainc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=190013&p=overview Barry Diller is the company's Chairman, while Dara Khosrowshahi is the company President and CEO.http://investors.expediainc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=190013&p=irol-govManage The company also boasts having over 400 employees based in local markets in efforts to further the company's relations with various hotels and airlines in an effort to give the consumer the best deal possible.

• Expedia.com
• Classic Vacations
• Hotels.com
• Hotwire.com
• TripAdvisor