Jefferies Maintains Buy Rating On EXPE

Jefferies has issued a report maintaining a Buy Rating on Expedia

following Google's

acquisition of ITA. According to the report, “While DOJ's conditional approval of Google's ITA acquisition is an incremental negative for OTAs, we do not view it as a game changer given a) EXPE's limited exposure to air (12% of revs), b) Google will have to agree to a broad set of restrictions, limiting the risks to OTAs and c) Stepped-up anti-trust scrutiny of Google search, which should help contribute to a level playing field for OTAs vs. Google.” EXPE is Buy Rated and has a $31 Price Target.