Smarter Travel Media, LLC, part of the TripAdvisor Media Network and an operating company of Expedia, Inc. , today announced it has acquired Airfarewatchdog(TM), http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/, a leading source of airfare sales. Airfarewatchdog.com(TM) evaluates and aggregates the best airfare deals from across the web on all airlines, including those that sell their fares only on their own web sites. Airfarewatchdog will operate as an independent site and is based in New York City. Terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed. Airfarewatchdog's eight employees will remain with the company.

"Airfarewatchdog joins SmarterTravel(R), BookingBuddy(R), SeatGuru(R) and our partner site FrequentFlier.com(TM), and makes SmarterTravel Media a definitive leader in airfare sites," said Daniel Saul, founder and CEO of Smarter Travel(R) Media. "In addition to deepening our presence in the travel deals sector, this acquisition strengthens the whole TripAdvisor(R) Media Group as the predominant travel planning resource and adds another strong brand to its collection of travel media sites."

"We are thrilled to join this family of leading travel sites," said George Hobica, founder and CEO of Airfarewatchdog.com. "We know we can learn from SmarterTravel and TripAdvisor to make our site bigger and better than ever and, at the same time, we're gratified that we're able to maintain our independence."

About the Smarter Travel Media Network

Smarter Travel Media, LLC, operates four popular travel brands, SmarterTravel.com(TM), BookingBuddy.com(TM), BookingBuddy.co.uk(TM), BookingBuddy.in(TM), SeatGuru.com(TM), and Airfarewatchdog.com(TM). Smarter Travel Media, LLC, is part of the TripAdvisor(R) Media Network, which attracts nearly 30 million monthly visitors (source: comScore Media Metrix, Digital Calculator Report, July 2007) across multiple popular travel brands. Smarter Travel Media LLC, TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. .

TripAdvisor, SeatGuru, Airfarewatchdog and Airfarewatchdog.com are either registered trademarks or trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. BookingBuddy and SmarterTravel are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Smarter Travel Media LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE: Smarter Travel Media, LLC