eLong (LONG) continues building the IAC empire (IACI 1Q05 conf call quotes)

IAC (ticker: IACI), an e-commerce company, reported
Q1 2005 results yesterday. Here is what Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of IAC
Travel, had to say about majority-owned China partner and online travel
service provider, eLong (ticker: LONG), during IAC's earnings results
conference call:

....We're working closely with majority-owned e-long on
a range of growth initiatives….building comprehensive inventory in the
areas of merchant hotels and destination services across the region, to
ensure that Expedia and Hotels.com sites around the world are the best
places for consumers to plan and purchase travel to the Asia-Pacific
region.

As for as E-long goes…. I think
it's a number 9 worldwide travel market. People expect it to be the
number 2 market 10 years from now….

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

Comment:

As IAC CEO Barry Diller mentioned on a previous conference
call, eLong will ultimately be part of Expedia. And he is surely hoping
eLong's stock will continue to decline so that he doesn't have to pay a
hefty premium for the rest of the Chinese company's equity.

Diller just might get his wish. For it looks like business as usual
for eLong. And this is not at all surprising. Why? Because eLong is on
a long road to profitability.

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