AllThingsD » airplane

Expedia Takes Stock as TripAdvisor Gets Ready to Fly the Coop

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:44:32 +0000

Now that Expedia’s spinoff of TripAdvisor is imminent, the online travel agency must explain to investors why they should stick with Expedia once its high-flying media business is gone.

In April, Expedia proposed a plan that would break the business into two public companies.

One would be a travel agency, focused on selling air, hotel and car rentals, and the other would be TripAdvisor, the travel reviews site that operates in 27 countries and 19 languages.

The deal is expected to close on or about Dec. 20, including a one-for-two reverse stock split immediately prior to the spin-off. Expedia will trade under the symbol EXPE and TripAdvisor will trade under TRIP.

Today, the company filed a presentation with the Securities & Exchange Commission detailing Expedia’s standalone growth prospects. The case will be an important one to make given that TripAdvisor is often seen as the more attractive of the two companies.

The Bellevue, Wash.-based company plans to present the slides to various investors and analysts over the next two-and-a-half months.

In the presentation, Expedia lists three major growth opportunities: International expansion, especially in Asia; a greater concentration on hotel bookings, which have higher margins than airplane tickets; and new distribution platforms, such as cellphones and tablets.

Expedia is a traditional travel agency that collects fees when an airfare or hotel room is booked. Meanwhile, TripAdvisor, which aggregates user-generated reviews, produces revenue from advertising, as well as fees when users book through other sites, such as Priceline or Orbitz.

In the quarter ended in September, TripAdvisor’s revenue jumped by 30 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, Expedia’s revenues rose only 14 percent.

Additionally, the company is breaking up as it faces increasing competition from Google, which has started integrating the technology of ITA, a travel software company it acquired, into its search results.

Expedia’s stock today is trading at $28.65, up 61 cents.

Could Using Your Gadgets in Mid-Air Really Bring Down the Plane?

Ina Fried — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:00:54 +0000

It seems hard for many to believe, but one air travel industry study has found that there may be some merit to the idea that small electronics could interfere enough with airplane navigation to cause a safety problem.

According to a confidential study unearthed by ABC News, a study by the International Air Transport Association trade group found some 75 incidents of potential interference reported between 2003 and 2009. They involved interference with everything from flight controls to navigation to communications systems. The type of device suspected of causing interference varied, though the most commonly cited likely troublemaker was the cellphone.

Cellphone use is, of course, banned by the FAA during flights, though many people forget to turn off their devices or willingly ignore the warnings. It is increasingly common to hear a cellphone ring or an alert chirp well after take-off.

Even more irksome to some is the requirement to shut down non-transmitting devices, such as iPods and Kindles. Those devices are allowed during flight, but not during takeoff or landing, even though some airlines are starting to replace their flight manuals with iPads.

The best part about this story was the reaction I got from boss Kara Swisher when I summarized it on our story list.

“Uh-oh,” she wrote. “I call Walt all the time from a plane. Only place AT&T worked.”

The good news for her fellow travelers is she now has a Verizon iPhone and, perhaps as a result of this article, extra scrutiny from her future flight crews.

(photo credit: Flickr/Brentdpayne)

You Can Call Leslie Nielsen Shirley. But Don't Ask Him About Gladiator Movies

Peter Kafka — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:54:55 +0000

The great Leslie Nielsen died today at 84, and the Internet is full of instant tributes. But some of them, well-intentioned as they may be, are missing the mark.

That’s because some of us can’t keep our “Airplane!” quotes straight. And that’s understandable! Nielsen sorta looked like co-star Peter Graves, and Graves died this year, too.

So here’s a refresher course:

Here’s the Nielsen line most of you remember:

And here’s the one from Graves:

But now you want more Nielsen, right? OK. Here’s some of his best stuff from from “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun.”

RIP.

AdobSoft? "Nonsense" on the Microsoft-Adobe Rumor (In Any Case, It'd More Likely Be GooDobe)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 05:01:48 +0000

Investment bankers and stock markets can calm down–Microsoft and Adobe are not in talks about an acquisition.

Spurred by a story in the New York Times that Microsoft was eyeing the software company for purchase, Adobe (ADBE) stock went wild today, up 11.5 percent to $28.69.

Except, according to numerous sources at both companies with whom I talked today, it’s “nonsense.”

Sure, it might be an interesting idea–kind of like AOL (AOL) and Yahoo (YHOO) merging–but that’s not the case at this point either.

Chalk this one up to blabby bankers and stock speculators–this might be a good rumor for regulators to look into.

Of course, as is typical, the execs at both companies talk a lot–you might have noticed that Adobe has a lot of software that is popular on the Windows operating system.

So, they had a meeting!

But it is kind of hard to do an acquisition when “Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, recently showed up with a small entourage of deputies at Adobe’s offices to hold a secret meeting with Adobe’s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen.”

Memo to the Times: When there is an acquisition afoot–in my experience–it’s all private airplanes and law offices and not a company HQ visit by the very loud and very noticeable Ballmer, the exact polar opposite of a shrinking violet.

In any case, it is not a big surprise at this point if longtime rivals like Adobe and Microsoft (MSFT)–which makes a competing video technology called Silverlight to Adobe’s Flash–talk about trying to stop the explosive growth of Apple, especially in the mobile space.

Microsoft is about to launch its Windows Phone 7, after many cloddish efforts in the arena have failed, and Adobe has been subject to a withering attack from Apple (AAPL) and its CEO Steve Jobs.

Jobs, in no uncertain terms, has dissed Flash relentlessly as a technology.

Others have not, such as Google (GOOG), which recently showed strong support for Adobe’s Flash in its recent launch of Google TV.

In fact, it is Google that is more mentioned in Silicon Valley as the logical acquirer of Adobe, if there were to be a sale.

Along with all its various assets, such as the Photoshop and Acrobat software that dominates online publishing, Adobe’s Omniture unit is one of the more powerful and popular analytics companies on the Web, which is right in Google’s wheelhouse.

Personally, that’s the one I would bet on, although that’s entirely me speaking.

Until that happens, here is a video interview of Jobs smacking around Adobe and Flash at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June:

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

R.I.P. Senator Ted "Tubes" Stevens

Kara Swisher — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:40:46 +0000

The Internet likes to spoof on politicians who make digital faux pas, such as former Vice President Al “I invented the Internet” Gore and Internets-loving former President George W. Bush.

And former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was tragically killed in a small airplane accident Monday, was no exception, never able to shake a speech in which he called the Web a “series of tubes.”

Said Stevens at a hearing in Congress in 2006:

“The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.”

The death of the hard-charging 86-year-old Republican pol, of course, revived the many online videos of him related to this non-geek malapropism, and “series of tubes” made it as a trending topic on Twitter.

Here is one of the more famous videos from Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show,” and another rap based on Stevens’ speech:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Headlines – Internet

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

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Web Meme: BoomTown and the Internet Is on #TeamSlater and His Inflatable-Slide Rage

Kara Swisher — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:15:56 +0000

The story of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater–who, after being abused by a passenger, did a full “Norma Rae” and huffed off the airplane via an inflatable slide–spread like wildfire across the Internet yesterday, almost immediately after the incident occurred.

It’s too much to hope that someone on the JetBlue (JBLU) flight had a Flip camera and is uploading the incident on YouTube right now, but video is unnecessary after the tale of flight rage got out and details piled upon details.

This is just the kind of silly, but true-to-life, story that everyone loves to share, and share it they did, with #teamslater quickly gaining ground on Twitter, and online comments and news stories exploding.

And why not? Everyone has encountered the entitled jerk who gets up before the plane has stopped, grabs his bag from the overhead compartment and then shoves his way to the front. Slater was simply doing his job by asking this passenger to sit down, and then decided he had had it when the bag struck him and he was cursed at.

We’ve also had our share of surly service from airline personnel, but this incident shed light on exactly why they might be a little more tetchy than we expect at times.

Maybe the cursing back on the intercom system and the dramatic beer-drinking exit was a bit over the top, but so what?

Slater is now, for better or worse, a Web hero.

Just like Norma Rae, seen in the video clip from the movie’s big scene below:

(The image is from Slater’s MySpace page here.)

The Dark Side of YouTube Fame: "Tron Guy" Forced Into Fire Sale

Peter Kafka — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:27:31 +0000

Jay Maynard, a.k.a. “The Tron Guy,” is famous for dressing up like, well, one of the guys from the movie “Tron.”

But while that distinction made him one of the early breakout stars on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube, it hasn’t made him rich. Or at least, not wealthy enough to afford the customized airplane he bought last year for $140,000. He’s auctioning it off on eBay (EBAY) at a fire sale price. UPDATE: Maynard notes, good naturedly, that his auction has an unmet reserve price. So it’s not fair to call this a fire sale without knowing what that amount is. My apology.

As I type this, the high bid for Maynard’s 2008 AMD Zodiac XLi is $22,6000. Maynard told Wired that he has put about 150 hours on the customized two-seater.

Wired makes reference to Maynard encountering “turbulence” at his day job as a computer programmer and notes that being “Tron Guy” has brought him notoriety but not much money. It seems the only paying gigs the distinction earned him were multiple appearances on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

I’m not sure if this is the original “Tron Guy” video that launched Maynard into YouTube fame. But it is the first one that pops up when you Google “Tron Guy YouTube” (and tellingly, the “related” videos that populate the right side of the screen star a who’s who of YouTube celebrities: The “Numa Numa” guy, “afro ninja,” “Asian Backstreet Boys,” etc.

Andy Jordan on a Plane–Instant Messaging! (Much, Much Worse Than Snakes!)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:01:10 +0000

Ok, here is my personal nightmare: Having a stranger sitting next to me on an airplane chattering endlessly throughout a flight, when all I want to do is read, watch a movie or sleep.

Now, horror of horrors, there is a service on Virgin America where passengers can do seat-to-seat chatting. WSJ.com’s Tech Diary video blogger Andy Jordan tries it out and finds most people really don’t want to be bothered, although that does not seem to stop some from bothering anyway.

Also a problem: the touchscreens irk the people in front of the chatter, what with all the poking (which is icky enough on Facebook).

See for yourself: