BELLEVUE, Wash., March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Expedia, Inc., the world's leading online travel company, today announced the acquisition of CarRentals.com, the premier online car rental marketing and retail firm offering a diverse selection of car rentals direct to consumers. Under this new agreement, CarRentals.com will continue to operate in its current form and will report as a business unit directly into Expedia, Inc.'s leading discount travel brand Hotwire(R).
"CarRentals.com complements the success of the Hotwire rental car offering and further enables us to bring choice and value to budget-conscious consumers," explains Eric Grosse, general manager of Hotwire.com(TM).
"Combining our car rental expertise along with the leadership and discount travel expertise of the Hotwire Team will propel CarRentals.com into its next phase of growth," said Lee Carlin, co-president of CarRentals.com.
"CarRentals.com's independence, philosophy, and commitment to both customers and vendors will remain unchanged," added David Morton, co-president of CarRentals.com.
Based in New Jersey, CarRentals.com is the premier car rental booking company on the web, offering advanced technologies to both consumers and rental car partners. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Expedia(R) confirmed that it expects to make no material changes to CarRentals.com operations, its employee base or brand name, and the senior leadership team will remain intact. In addition, supply partners to both Hotwire and CarRentals.com will continue under current working relationships with each brand, respectively.
About Hotwire
Hotwire.com is a leading discount travel site with low rates on airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises, and vacation packages. Launched in 2000, Hotwire negotiates deep discounts from its travel suppliers to help travelers book unsold airline seats, hotel rooms, and rental cars at significant savings. J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Independent Travel Web Site Satisfaction Study(SM) recognized Hotwire for ranking "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Independent Travel Web Sites, Two Years in a Row." Hotwire is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. . CST: 2053390-40. NST: 20003-0209. For more information, visit http://www.hotwire.com/.
About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. is the world's leading online travel company, empowering business and leisure travelers with the tools and information they need to easily research, plan, book and experience travel. Expedia, Inc. also provides wholesale travel to offline retail travel agents and in-destination concierge service and activity desks for travelers. The Expedia, Inc. portfolio of brands includes: Expedia.com(R), hotels.com(R), Hotwire(R), Expedia(R) Corporate Travel, TripAdvisor(R), Expedia Local Expert(TM), Classic Vacations(R) and eLong(TM). Expedia, Inc.'s companies operate more than 50 global points of sale with sites in North America, South America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Expedia, Inc. is a component of the S&P 500 index. For more information, visit http://www.expediainc.com/
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Expedia and Expedia.com are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Classic Vacations is either a trademark or registered trademark of Classic Vacations, LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. hotels.com is either a trademark or registered trademark of hotels.com, L.P., a subsidiary of hotels.com in the U.S. and/or other countries. Hotwire is either a trademark or registered trademark of Hotwire, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. TripAdvisor is either a trademark or registered trademark of TripAdvisor, LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.