Expedia, Inc. Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Europe-Based Venere.com

Seattle/Rome (USA/Italy) 15 July (PROTEXT/PRNewswire) - Expedia, Inc.(Nasdaq: EXPE) today announced that it has entered into an agreement toacquire Italy-based Venere Net ApA (http://www.venere.com) from AdventInternational and the founding partners. Venere.com has establishedrelationships with approximately 29,000 hotels and bed and breakfastproperties throughout Europe and the U.S. The transaction will result inthe addition of more than 10,000 incremental hotel properties in Europe,the Middle East and Africa to Expedia, Inc.'s global hotel offering. Termsof the pending acquisition were not disclosed. Closing of the transactionis subject to competition approval in Germany.

Venere.com is focused on offering hotel reservations to European consumersand provides hoteliers with geographically diverse sources of demand. Thecompany has direct relationships with approximately 29,000 hotels aroundthe world - including 26,000 in Europe - with which it operates an agencymodel. Venere(TM) is currently adding hotel properties at a rate of morethan 1,000 per month.

"Acquiring Venere will bring a well-known, respected European consumerbrand to the Expedia(R) portfolio," said Dara Khosrowshahi, President andCEO, Expedia, Inc. "Additionally, it will immediately expand our supplyfootprint in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and enable Expedia todiversify our business model approach to hotel partners worldwide."

"We are delighted to have played a role alongside Venere's management teamin transitioning the company from an entrepreneurial, founder-led businessinto one of Europe's most valuable on-line travel assets," said JohnSinger, Managing Partner of Advent International. "Expedia is a highlycomplementary fit for Venere, and will be a perfect strategic partner fortheir ongoing development."

"We are thrilled at the prospect of becoming part of Expedia because ourdedication to offering superior service to travelers via our expansivenetwork of hotels and B&Bs is a great fit with the most respected group ofbrands in travel," said Marco Ficarra, CEO of Venere.com. "In addition, ourteam of passionate travel professionals located in Rome, London and Pariswill complement Expedia's global team, as we continue to provide hotels newways to optimize their distribution mix."

About Expedia, Inc.

Expedia, Inc. is the world's leading online travel company, empoweringbusiness and leisure travelers with the tools and information they need toeasily research, plan, book and experience travel. Expedia, Inc. alsoprovides wholesale travel to offline retail travel agents andin-destination concierge service and activity desks for travelers. TheExpedia, Inc.

portfolio of brands includes: Expedia.com(R), hotels.com(R), Hotwire(R),Expedia(R) Corporate Travel, TripAdvisor(R), Expedia Local Expert(TM),Classic Vacations(R) and eLong(TM). Expedia, Inc.'s companies operate morethan 50 global points of sale with sites in North America, South America,Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Expedia, Inc.is a component of the S&P 500 index. For more information, visithttp://www.expediainc.com/ (Nasdaq: EXPE).

About Venere Net

Founded in 1995, Venere Net is an Online Travel Agency operating on aglobal scale, and the only one to focus exclusively on hotel reservations.

Global private equity firm Advent International obtained a majority stakein Venere in late 2006. The remaining shares are still in the hands of thefour company founders. In addition to its headquarters in Rome, Venere Nethas branch offices in London (Venere UK LTD) and Paris (Venere FranceSARL). For more information, visit http://www.Venere.com/.

About Advent International

Founded in 1984, Advent International is one of the world's leading globalbuyout firms, with offices in 15 countries on four continents. Advent hasbuilt an unparalleled global platform of over 115 investment professionalsacross Western and Central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia.The firm focuses on international buyouts, strategic restructuringopportunities and growth buyouts in five core sectors, working activelywith management teams to drive revenue growth and earnings improvements inportfolio companies. Since its creation, Advent has raised euro 15 billionin private equity capital and completed more than 200 buyout and privateequity transactions valued at over euro 23 billion (US$36 billion) in 35countries.

For more information, visit http://www.adventinternational.com

Expedia and Expedia.com are either registered trademarks or trademarks ofExpedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Classic Vacations iseither a trademark or registered trademark of Classic Vacations, LLC in theU.S.

and/or other countries. hotels.com is either a trademark or registeredtrademark of hotels.com, L.P., a subsidiary of hotels.com in the U.S.and/or other countries. Hotwire is either a trademark or registeredtrademark of Hotwire, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. TripAdvisoris either a trademark or registered trademark of TripAdvisor, LLC in theUS. and/or other countries. Venere is a registered trademark or trademarkof Venere Net S.p.a.

in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and companynames mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

Web site: http://www.expedia.com

Source: Expedia, Inc.

Contact: Communications of Expedia, Inc., tel.: +1-425-679-4317, e-mail:press@expedia.com

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