Expedia Group is an American online travel shopping company for consumer and small business travel. Its websites, which are primarily travel fare aggregators and travel metasearch engines, include CarRentals.com, Expedia.com, HomeAway, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, trivago and Vrbo. 

According to Rich Barton, the company's first CEO, the word "Expedia" is derived from a combination of "exploration" and "speed".

Founded as a division of Microsoft in October 1996, Expedia was spun off into a public company in 1999. 

In 2001, IAC/InterActiveCorp (known at the time as USA Networks Inc) bought a controlling interest in the company for an estimated $1.5 billion.

In 2003, it was fully purchased by IAC/InterActiveCorp.

In August 2005, IAC spun off Expedia Inc., which owned its travel group of businesses, including Expedia, Expedia Corporate Travel (now Egencia), TripAdvisor, Classic Vacations, eLong, Hotels.com, and Hotwire.com

Later, it acquired Via Travel,  Wotif.com, Travelocity, Orbitz and HomeAway. Expedia, Inc. is the world's leading online travel service and the eighth largest travel agency in the U.S. Expedia's award-winning Expert Searching and Pricing (ESP) technology delivers the most comprehensive flight options available online. 

ESP also allows customers to dynamically build complete trips that combine flights, Expedia Special Rate hotels and other lodging, ground transportation, and destination activities. 

According to en.wikipedia & fundinguniverse