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 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.