Kayak Prices $100 Million IPO at $25 a Share

Headline is wrong. They are _raising_ $100 million with an initial offering that values the company at about $1 billion

They raised $196 million round in 2007 from Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Accel Partners.<p>That stake is now worth $254 million for General Catalyst. Sequoia Capital's stake is $150 million. Accel's investment is now worth $120 million.<p>... that's $524 million on a $196 million investment, after 5 years. Hardly spectacular.

Perhaps I'm misreading things, but it says Sequoia pumped in 196 million, but its stock value of equity at launch will only be worth 150 million. Does that mean they will be 'losing' money on the investment, until the stock goes up?

Good to see an IPO with a value I can kind of fathom and believe instead of, you know, $X BILLION! or something.

Why do these articles alway hide the cap table?

What Kayak is really good in: If you have flexible dates. It shows you best fares found for each day.<p>Otherwise I don't see why Sites like <a href="http://www.vayama.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.vayama.com/</a> or not the same. Besides the brand, what is their unique selling point? ebay, AirBnB has high entry levels. But a site to compare flights?

I'm interested in everyone's thoughts about Kayak.<p>My feeling is that slowly but surely, the travel sellers who buying leads from Kayak will start paying less. So while I see it as a successful business, I'm not really sure where they're planning to go from here.

"four million million shares"? daaamn!

While I have traveled a lot for work the past few years, I have never used a single travel service like kayak, hipmunk, priceline, etc...<p>I go to one place for my tickets typically - the airline. My airline of choice is Virgin which has fantastic prices anyway.<p>When I had a client in Nome alaska, and I was there one week per month, I used virgin to go to SEA then alaska airlines from SEA on.<p>I know I am in a weird bracket, but i just never felt comfortable with any of the third party ticket services.<p>It reminds me of whenever i go to a farmers market. I never remember the prices at whole foods/safeway and I feel like I am not getting a deal, but am being fooled by the illusion of a farmers market.

Hipmunk &#62; Kayak