When the Google-ITA Software deal was announced last week the search giant produced a handy diagram of how it views the travel ecosystem.
Sitting alongside ITA Software, which it intends to buy, were the three GDSs (Travelport, Sabre and Amadeus), Expedia‘s Best Fair Search and European startup Everbread.
The wide array of companies seemingly operating in the same space , despite their age or size of business, were – some suspected darkly – put there in order to allay concerns ahead of possible anti-trust hearings in the US.
Google has since admitted it expects the Department of Justice to look into the deal.
Fast forward six days after the announcement of the deal and the name of yet another small player was mysteriously added to the chart yesterday.
Those who read the TLabs Showcase for Vayant (coincidentally, also published yesterday) will know that Vayant is also a real-time pricing and availability engine but also a self-confessed “newcomer” to the industry… as well as late to Google’s ecosystem.
Google says:
“We added Vayant because we learned that their product competes with QPX, and we wanted to provide an accurate portrait of how competitive and robust the online travel space is.”
Nevertheless the late addition is an intriguing one and questions may emerge as to why Vayant was not added in the first place, at the time of the ITA acquisition.
NB: Keen onlookers will also note that Northwest Airlines/Delta has been removed.
A Vayant official says:
“We are glad to be included in the competitive set because Google realises we have the technology to be able to compete in that space.”
May or may not be interesting to point out the former employment of the attorney who filed Vayant’s patent for flight search capabilities on March 22, 2010 just so happens to be the former Sr. Legal Counsel at Yahoo Inc… not sure if it’s relevant or not, but nevertheless slightly intriguing.
“Did you see these new guys on Tnooz?”
“No, let me see…. Yeah, add them to that chart thing.”
“Ok”
Just another day at Google HQ.
Hahaha… touche.
Thanks for the laugh on my way out of the office after a very long day of travel distribution & technology bliss.
I don’t know how DoJ would look at anti-trust. If it’s just a question of counting the number of flight search engines, then we can add TravelFusion, Dohop, Skyscanner… which not only have great technologies but also long established businesses if compared to new entrants.
Ah, but Travelfusion, Dohop, and Skyscanner are European, so as far as the DoJ is concerned they don’t count. Seriously, what US consumer would use a European metasearch technology.
That was sarcastic by the way…
@stephen – just wait and see
Appreciated
Nevertheless Everbread is also from London, and yet to be launched