Kayak Cashes In

Online travel companies like Kayak and Priceline are all about finding the right price. While their focus is on helping customers find travel deals, when the two companies come together, the right price is apparently $1.8 billion.

Concord-based Kayak, an 8-year-old company specializing in aggregating travel info for travel customers, has sold itself to Priceline.com for a purchase price that includes $500 million in cash and $1.3 billion in equity and stock options, according to a report by the Boston Herald. 

“The Priceline Group’s global reach and expertise will accelerate our growth and help us further develop as a company,” Kayak CEO Steve Hafner said in a statement, via the Herald.

News of the sale comes just a few months after Kayak went public and saw shares travel upward. In its first day, the company saw its shares rise 28 percent to close at $33.18.  

From the Priceline purchase, expected to close in the first quarter of next year, Kayak will receive $40 per share, a 30 percent premium on the closing price before the deal was announced, the Herald reported.

Hafner, along with Chief Technology Officer Paul English are expected to continue to run the Concord-based Kayak as an independent unit within Priceline.