Updated July 31, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- IAC/InterActiveCorp, which runs such travel Web sites as Expedia and Hotels.com, will enter the expanding Chinese market by acquiring a 30 percent interest in eLong Inc., a Beijing-based travel Web site company, for $60 million.
IAC, headed by chief executive Barry Diller, said Monday it would also acquire warrants that could increase the company's ownership of eLong to 51 percent.
Through two Web sites -- one in English, the other in Chinese -- and a telephone call center, eLong offers more than 2,000 hotel rooms at discounted rates across China. The company, formed in 1999, also offers airline ticketing and other travel-related services.
IAC, based in New York, also announced the creation of IAC Travel-Asia Pacific and the promotion of Barney Harford to head the division.
"China is the most exciting and dramatic travel market in the world," Harford said.
China represents an $87 billion travel and tourism market today, which is expected to grow to more than $300 billion by 2014, according to IAC, quoting estimates from the World Travel & Tourism Council.
IAC said eLong would continue to operate independently and retain its current management and employees.
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