Booking Holdings

The company was formed as a Delaware limited liability company in 1997, converted into a Delaware corporation in July 1998, and launched its business in the United States that year under the priceline.com brand.⁠[1]

Founder Jay Walker launched priceline.com and its Name Your Own Price service in 1997.⁠[2]

Priceline went public in 1999 and reached a $12.9 billion market value on its first day, then the highest for a corporation. In 2000 it discontinued WebHouse Club, its grocery and gasoline venture, to refocus on travel, and Jay Walker left the board.⁠[2]

Priceline acquired Cambridge-based Active Hotels in September 2004 and on July 14, 2005 announced the cash purchase of Amsterdam-based Bookings B.V. for about €110 million (US$133 million). Bookings, founded in 1996, had about 130 full-time employees.⁠[3]

The company acquired Agoda in 2007. In 2009 its international business represented approximately 61 percent of gross bookings. As of January 31, 2010, it had approximately 2,010 full-time employees, and its stock traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol PCLN.⁠[4]

On October 22, 2009, Nasdaq announced that Priceline would join the Nasdaq-100 Index before the market opened on October 29, replacing Juniper Networks.⁠[5]

On October 29, 2009, Standard & Poor’s announced that Priceline would replace Schering-Plough, which was merging with Merck & Co.Merck & Co.Merck & Co., Inc. is a global health care company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, that develops medicines and vaccines and is called MSD outside the United States and Canada.Open the full entry, in the S&P 500S&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry after the close of trading on a date to be announced.⁠[6]

On May 21, 2013, priceline.com announced the completion of its merger with travel search company KAYAK, paying approximately $522.4 million in cash, issuing approximately 1,519,717 shares of common stock and assuming KAYAK’s outstanding stock options. KAYAK continued as an independent brand under co-founder and CEO Steve Hafner.⁠[7]

On April 1, 2014, the company changed its name from priceline.com Incorporated to The Priceline Group Inc. In 2014 its international business, mostly Booking.com, represented approximately 87 percent of gross bookings.⁠[1]

In July 2014, The Priceline Group completed its $2.6 billion acquisition of restaurant reservation platform OpenTable, which became the group’s sixth major brand.⁠[8]

On April 28, 2016, CEO Darren Huston resigned following a board-overseen investigation into a personal relationship with an employee who was not under his direct supervision, which found he had acted contrary to the company’s Code of Conduct. Chairman Jeffery H. Boyd became interim CEO and President, and Gillian Tans was named CEO of Booking.com.⁠[9]

On December 15, 2016, The Priceline Group named Glenn Fogel CEO effective January 1, 2017. Fogel had been Head of Strategy and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development. Jeffery H. Boyd, CEO from 2002 to 2013, became Executive Chairman.⁠[10]

On February 21, 2018, The Priceline Group Inc. changed its name to Booking Holdings Inc., and its ticker changed from PCLN to BKNG on February 27. Among its six primary brands, Booking.com produced a significant majority of gross bookings and operating profit. Glenn Fogel said the move was “to more accurately align our company name with our largest business.”⁠[11]

In September 2023, the European Commission prohibited Booking Holdings’ acquisition of Etraveli Group from CVC Capital Partners. On September 25, Booking Holdings said it intended to appeal to the European courts and extended its commercial partnership with Etraveli through at least December 2028. Glenn Fogel said the decision “not only departs from settled law and precedent.”⁠[12]

On May 13, 2024, the European Commission designated Booking Holdings as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act for its online intermediation service Booking.com.⁠[13]

From November 14, 2024, Booking.com had to comply with the Digital Markets Act’s relevant obligations, including not restricting hotels and other providers from offering better prices and conditions on other online channels and their own websites, and giving businesses real-time data access and users data portability.⁠[14]

On July 30, 2024, Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) fined Booking.com €413.24 million for abusing its dominant position from at least January 1, 2019, including by barring hotels from offering lower prices on their own websites than on Booking.com.⁠[15]

As of December 31, 2025, Booking Holdings had approximately 24,300 employees. Among its main brands, Booking.com is based in the Netherlands, Agoda in Singapore and OpenTable in San Francisco.⁠[16]

In 2025, Booking Holdings’ room nights totaled 1,235 million, up 8 percent; gross bookings were $186.1 billion, up 12 percent; and revenue was $26.9 billion, up 13 percent from $23.7 billion in 2024. Net income fell 8 percent to $5.4 billion from $5.9 billion, or $165.57 per diluted share.⁠[17]

The company effected the 25-for-1 stock split on April 2, 2026. Second-quarter 2026 results released on August 4 showed room nights of 325 million, up 5 percent; gross bookings of $51.0 billion, up 9 percent; revenue of $7.4 billion, up 8 percent; and net income of $1.95 billion, up 118 percent, or $2.53 per diluted share on a split-adjusted basis.⁠[18]