Cheap Expedia pulls in heaps of smart money

We all like to back winners, but sometimes a wiser move is to back a laggard that’s making up ground. Online travel group Expedia (US:EXPE) could be a case in point.

The company is the granddaddy of online travel. The venture was dreamt up by boffins at Microsoft in the mid-1990s as the company brainstormed ways the then-fledgling internet could change consumer habits. The business was spun out during the white heat of the dotcom boom and, after surviving the subsequent bust, significantly diversified through a series of acquisitions during the 2010s.

However, by the start of this decade, management decided the group had become ridden with complexities and inefficiencies.