Kayak gets its $1 billion valuation: raises $91 million at $26 a share

Source: Bloomberg
Author: Ari Levy

Kayak Software Corp., the online travel company, raised $91 million in its initial public offering, pricing the shares above its proposed range.

The company sold 3.5 million shares at $26 each, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Kayak, which will trade under the ticker KYAK on the Nasdaq Stock Market, had planned to sell the shares at $22 to $25 apiece.

Photo by Julien Gong Min.

Kayak, which first filed to go public in November 2010, is the first U.S. consumer Internet company to go public since Facebook Inc.’s troubled IPO in May. Norwalk, Connecticut-based Kayak delayed its roadshow after Facebook shares tumbled and is testing investor appetite for Web stocks now that the social- networking company has regained some of its losses.

Revenue at Kayak jumped 39 percent in the first quarter to $73.3 million, from $52.7 million a year earlier. The company reported net income in the period of $4.1 million, following a $6.9 million loss in the year-earlier quarter because of a writedown related to its SideStep brand.

Kayak’s competitors in the online travel market include Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which have both made acquisitions to expand their businesses. Kayak also faces competition from startups like Hipmunk Inc.

The company was founded in 2004 by Chief Executive Officer Daniel Stephen Hafner and Paul English, the chief technology officer. They hold a combined 16 percent of the company’s voting power. The biggest backers are General Catalyst Partners, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Oak Investment Partners.

Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG led the offering.

With assistance from Lee Spears and Serena Saitto in New York. Editor: Ben Livesey, Elizabeth Wollman. To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at [email protected].