Expedia (EXPE) Trades Higher on Greyhound Deal, Citi Conference

Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) shares are seeing strength today, up 2.7% on increased volume, following a report that Greyhound is teaming up with an affiliate of Expedia's and a presentation at the Citi 21st Annual Global Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference.

Today, the AP reported that Greyhound is teaming up with the Expedia Affiliate Network, which will allow Greyhound the ability to offer hotel rooms on its website. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. A little increase in bus traveling may be expected in the future following implementation of new TSA procedures for flights.

At the Citi conference, CFO Michael Adler made some comments about the industry overall and their operations:

• "Sees long-term being buyers of its stock"
  
  
• "Using cash on acquisitions, buybacks"
  
  
• "Sees 2011 headwinds"
  
  
• "Sees 'opportunistic' acquisitions versus 'filling known gap.'"
  
  
• "Industry risk in Google's ITA deal"
  
  
• "Supplier relationships are good"
  
  
• "No guarantees on American talks"
  
  
• "Sees some signs industry capacity returning"
  
  
• "It will continue to seek acquisitions."

Expedia has been in talks with AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), parent of American Airlines, following American pulling their listings from the site a few weeks ago. American wants distributors to use a direct electronic link (Direct Connect) rather than through the global distribution systems, or GDS. A direct link would allow American better access to metrics and what travelers buying their tickets are doing, allowing them to shape their business model accordingly. Critics of Direct Connect, including Orbitz (NYSE: OWW), say that it gives the consumer less choice.

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