
Google acquires ITA Software - rondevera
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/ita-software-acquisition-cleared-for.html
======
eddmc
There is some commentary on the terms that the Department of Justice have put
on the deal here: [http://www.tnooz.com/2011/04/08/news/google-ita-software-
dea...](http://www.tnooz.com/2011/04/08/news/google-ita-software-deal-
approved-by-us-authorities-with-conditions/)

In brief:

\- Google will be required to license QPX software to airfare websites on
commercially reasonable terms.

\- Google will be required to continue to fund research and develop the
product “at least” at similar levels to what ITA had invested.

\- Google will be required to develop and offer ITA’s InstaSearch product to
other travel websites.

------
martincmartin
By the way, Paul Graham was an early fan of ITA software, mentioning them in
"Great Hackers"

<http://paulgraham.com/gh.html>

And even has an interview with ITA's original programming genius, Carl de
Marken

<http://paulgraham.com/carl.html>

~~~
SkyMarshal
I discovered those essays back in 2006 when I was working for an airline, and
tried to get them to adapt ITA's technology for that reason. ITA was the best
on the market at that time, and the e/web-marketing guys loved them too. But
the bean counters deemed them too expensive and ruled them out. I left
sometime after, was tired of trying to turn chicken shit into chicken salad
(there were other issues involved, not just the data supply).

------
philfreo
Does anyone know what makes ITA so special? Why don't any of the big airlines
have APIs that Hipmunk, Kayak, Orbitz, etc. can use directly? (Do any of
them?) Seems odd that everyone should have to rely on this one company for the
data, when it should be originating from the airlines.

~~~
aerique
ITA is special not because of the data but because of what it does with the
data. The others haven't been able to reproduce that. Think of it as the
Google of airline data.

~~~
nano81
To give an example, check out <http://matrix.itasoftware.com/>

I've never found anything as useful or flexible for searching airline data.

------
maayank
_How cool would it be if you could type "flights to somewhere sunny for under
$500 in May"_

How cool would it be to receive suggestions for flights in May with clusters
in my social graph as destinations?

~~~
hristov
Right because before I had to keep random acquaintances as friends and read
their updates in order not to hurt their feelings, now I have to fly to random
places in order not to hurt peoples feelings. Can't wait.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I had a business acquaintance get her feelings hurt because I didn't follow
her back when she followed me on Twitter. I looked at her feed and she
_literally_ had tweeted about her breakfast that morning.

I quit Twitter instead so that I wouldn't have to hurt anyone's feelings
anymore.

~~~
aerique
What about just not caring whether you hurt someone's trivial feelings? That
is becoming an important feeling in this ever-connected world.

~~~
aerique
Ugh, that should have said "important skill". Too late to edit now.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I wasn't getting much value out of Twitter anyway (not a judgement on
Twitter's value, just on what I was getting out of it), and my business
depends a lot on maintaining healthy relationships with lots of people, since
we grow primarily by referral. It just made sense to drop Twitter altogether
and tell people instead that I don't use it.

~~~
aerique
Sounds reasonable :-)

------
neutronicus
I wonder if the Common Lisp codebase will survive the acquisition?

~~~
cpr
Google higher-ups strike me as not so dumb that they'd misunderstand the
crucial nature of that code...

~~~
neutronicus
The DOJ's conditions also seem to tie their hands a bit as far as what changes
they can make with ITA's software, I realize.

~~~
diegob
Do you have a link? This seems interesting.

~~~
neutronicus
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2424540>

------
runevault
I'm sort of surprised this went through since their advantage in search mixed
with the power ITA has within their field leads to very powerful mix that
could put competitors at a serious disadvantage. Maybe the DoJ saw something I
did not to make it less of a problem, but even as a google fan it's... ungh. I
don't like this going through.

~~~
skymt
The key was Google's agreement to continue licensing QPX on “fair, reasonable
and non-discriminatory terms”. According to the linked Justice Department
press release, they're also required to continue development of the publicly-
available version of QPX.

~~~
runevault
Very interesting. Be very curious to see if it is enforced (although I think
google is more prone to not risk it since they are under so much scrutiny if
nothing else).

------
throwa_way
So, I have an interesting perspective to share. I'm graduating and might end
up working for Kayak. I know at least part of their infrastructure depends on
ITA, and while the existing contract goes until 2013 (I think), Google is
obviously looking to compete. Kayak also recently filed for IPO.

It's not like Google has never failed at any of its ventures, but to me it
seems like it might be a tough competitor to everyone in this field, since a
decent amount of traffic does come through search results. On the other hand,
I think a majority of users come in directly, either through WOM or
advertising or previous use.

So, what is HN's thoughts on the situation for Kayak? Would it be a wrong move
to accept a job there? The engineers seem smart, the work is interesting, the
culture is sane and easygoing. What's the worst that could happen?

~~~
dartland
Kayak is a great company and this is a fascinating time to be in travel
search. Go for it! A first job under Paul English (even a few layers beneath
him) is a big win and Kayak's engineering reputation so great that you'll have
plenty of opportunities down the road.

So in summary: Worst scenario is pretty darn good for you!

------
hristov
This is a good opportunity for someone to start a competitor of ITA. Google
are only required to serve the ITA clients for five years. They will probably
stop afterwards, they will want people to use their search engine to find
flights.

The only thing special about ITA is their excellent software. Apparently they
get their raw data from another company that is willing to license the data to
anyone. I am sure that there are still some old LISPers around that can write
a similar software for a new company.

~~~
MichaelSalib
_Apparently they get their raw data from another company that is willing to
license the data to anyone._

This is not true. In order to do what ITA does, you need schedules, fares, and
availability data. You can buy the first two from clearinghouses if you have
enough money. But the only way to get availability data is to either contract
with airlines directly OR contract with your competitors.

 _I am sure that there are still some old LISPers around that can write a
similar software for a new company._

That is just breathtakingly wrong.

~~~
hristov
Breathtakingly wrong? Are you saying there aren't any old lispers left? Or
that old lipers cannot write similar software?

Before you say something is breathtakingly wrong you should read it carefully
and try to understand it. This way you might also get some of the jokes that
are currently flying over your head.

~~~
MichaelSalib
There are plenty of lispers left. I'm one of them. I also used to work at ITA.

The bit that is breathtakingly wrong is the notion that you can just take some
smart lisper, lock them in a room, and have them replicate what ITA did and
have that be a viable business. See martincmartin's and my comments later in
this thread to learn why that would be incredibly hard. With a smart enough
team and enough time and money, you could certainly do it, but this is a
project that would take many years and its unlikely anyone would be able to
keep funding for that long. ITA had a much easier job: it was competing with
very poorly designed systems that ran on mainframes and had very little CPU
power available.

~~~
gruseom
Given what you and martincmartin are saying, I am left wondering why Google
was able to buy ITA for so little. How can such a thing be worth less than a
billion dollars?

~~~
MichaelSalib
Because there's a rather finite amount of money spent on air travel which
means that the valuation of any one company in that sector will be well within
Google's means?

~~~
gruseom
Perhaps. But in that case it's a much smaller market than I imagined. Also
relevant is that ITA raised $100M in 2006, so their $700M exit is hardly a
home run by VC standards. It doesn't seem to match the astonishingly strong
technical and market position you (convincingly) describe.

[http://www.itasoftware.com/news-events/press-
release.html?id...](http://www.itasoftware.com/news-events/press-
release.html?id=103). Note that the round included Sequoia who are known for
caring only about big markets.

~~~
jsnell
ITA raised all that money to build a reservation system to replace the old
mainframe systems that are fabulously expensive to run. That would have been a
market of the kind that required outside investement from a company that was
already profitable (I think ITA had more people working on the reservation
system than the search), and that a big VC would love to bet on.

From what I hear it worked technically, but failed commercially due to the
badly timed recession. It seems like a fair bet that Google's offer wasn't
putting a lot of value on the reservation system. Even if it could be made to
work, it's not the kind of a business that Google is usually in.

------
calpaterson
Hipmunk might be in trouble.

~~~
travisglines
Today feels like Google (attempt of) squashing YCombinator startups day.

First they're doing Youtube Live -> Justin.tv etc.

Then better flight search -> Hipmunk

~~~
cryptoz
It could also be viewed as epic validation that the ideas are gold. I most
certainly believe Hipmunk can compete against Google; the team is completely
awesome and they're far more nimble and agile. Although Google does have an
unbeatable vision of Maps I'd imagine...there's no _real_ reason you shouldn't
be able to get bus times and airplane times in the same place. And perhaps if
you could then pay for the bus and the plane using your Android NFC...

Oh jeez. I love the future.

------
dave1619
Who does Jeff Huber, SVP of Commerce and Local, report to?

~~~
metageek
Larry Page, I think.

------
WhatMatt3rs
How much?? That's all that matters, that's all I care

------
bauchidgw
rough times ahead for flight and travel sites (which generated good money via
leeds to flight search sites) ... googles killing one internet ecosystem after
the other.

