Kayak has acquired rival Sidestep for about $200 million, effectively shrinking the discount travel search space. Both services aggregated info from across a number of travel sites and let users
sort it by price and other preferences.
According to Michael Arrington, the combined companies will be very profitable, as Sidestep reportedly clocks in about $35 million annually (from
affiliate fees for ticket sales and display and e-mail marketing deals), while Kayak brings in about $50 million just from ticket sales.
Upon completion of the merger and once the two
month transition period ends, the new company will have about 60 employees, and Sidestep's CEO Rob Solomon will be back on the market.