ITA and kayak were organizationally close in a lot of ways. Kayak brought lots of useful data relationships to the table and ITA brought their technological wiz

ITA and kayak were organizationally close in a lot of ways. Kayak brought lots of useful data relationships to the table and ITA brought their technological wizardry. Google was a direct (and hostile) competitor to kayak, who led the anti-trust charge to stop the acquisition. The post-acquisition hostility is just the standard SV playbook stuff like prioritizing Google products in search results and offering amazing incentives to build market share. I have no particular insight here beyond a general interest in the industry though.