Expedia profit up as bookings grow 19 percent

CHICAGO | Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:06pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Online travel agency Expedia Inc said its quarterly net profit rose as bookings increased by 19 percent.

The company said on Thursday that its second-quarter net profit amounted to $140 million, or 50 cents per share, compared with 114 million, or 40 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, Expedia earned 55 cents per share, beating a Wall Street consensus forecast for 49 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The value of the company's bookings rose 19 percent to $8 billion. Domestic bookings increased 10 percent and international bookings increased 37 percent.

Expedia cited especially strong growth in hotel bookings, up 21 percent. The company also said its advertising and media revenue jumped 27 percent.

Shares of Expedia rose 7.1 percent to $31.05 in aftermarket trading from a closing price of $28.99 on Nasdaq.

Expedia, which competes with Priceline and Orbitz Worldwide, said in April that it plans to split into two publicly traded companies through a proposed spin-off of its TripAdvisor business.

The company has said the proposed spin-off of TripAdvisor is expected to be completed in the third quarter.

Expedia also recently announced a partnership on a travel website with online coupon service Groupon Inc.

(Reporting by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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