Orbitz IPO Greeted With A Yawn

from the full-circle dept

Fri, Jul 20th 2007 10:45am — Joseph Weisenthal

Throughout its relatively short history, online travel site Orbitz has undergone quite a number of ownership changes. Last year, Orbitz' parent company was bought out by private equity firm Blackstone, which promptly decided to flip it back to the public markets. When it first filed to go public, there were many who argued that the company looked like a terrible investment for both operational and structural reasons. It looks like the market agrees with that assessment, as the IPO ended up pricing below its expected range. Private equity firms aren't infallible, and sometimes they're bound to buy companies that they can't turn into very much. But as more of these unimpressive offerings come to market, there's going to be increased skepticism over whether these firms can apply their magic touch to the tech industry.

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Filed Under: ipos, private equity
Companies: blackstone, orbitz

8 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2007 @ 12:11pm

Spoiler: Ron dies!
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2007 @ 1:25pm
  
  Re:
  i hate you.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2007 @ 12:19pm

I have a friend that works at Orbitz. The do a lot of cool stuff with AI using Ruby. They do a lot with predicting buying habits, schedules and flight time preference. All handled though a sophisticated AI. So they definitely have a good hold on the tech end. But I for one have had a bad expereince with trying to cancel there pre-packaged deals.
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AC, baby ;-), 20 Jul 2007 @ 12:26pm

Ugh. Orbitz is such a rape.

Next time I need to travel, I'm getting a goddamn donkey. It'll be slower, yes, but at least I won't feel like an ass.
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SPR, 20 Jul 2007 @ 12:30pm

Not surprising that their IPO would be weak. Orbitz has more to do with the airline industry, and less to do with Tech. As the airlines go, so goes Orbitz, but faster!!
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Harry Potter Fan, 20 Jul 2007 @ 2:31pm

HATE YOU
Ok... the guy who posted that... thank you... people from techdirt should definitely erase that comment.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2007 @ 3:20pm

I use Orbitz to find the cheap flights, then I go to the actual airline and buy the tickets. Why pay $5 more to Orbitz instead of paying $5 less and buy the tickets from the actual airline?
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Lodging, 11 Dec 2007 @ 2:18am

Orbitz Hotels and Flights
Commissions are very low on flights, still higher on hotel reservations. These commissions are more or less the same for all re-sellers, in the end re-sellers spend for advertising till they consume nearly all of the commission margin. Guess who is gaining a lot from hotels and flights bookings considering that the commission amount is moving to the advertising side, I would say mainly Google then Yahoo and few dollars to the others. Indeed airlines and hotel chains are advertising directly and have their websites fully converted to e-commerce. For accommodation needs, hotels can be booked directly with many advantages and possibly better discounts.
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