Google To Take Over coITA

Google Corporation on Thursday announced that it is going to acquire coITA, a global provider of software systems for flight information such as flight timings and fares in a bid to strengthen its travel search functions.

The move is being touted as a retaliation to Microsoft's increasing popularity in the travel search segment duue to the launch of its field specific search engine Bing. Google Corp. CEO Eric Schmidt in a conference with analysts said that, "What we're going to do is build new flight search tools that focus on end-users."

He also emphasized on the point that the search engine giant is not aiming to sell airline tickets to its users by using ITA's systems.

He also said that the company is going to honor every contract ITA has with its clients or partners after the takeover. Google has decided to acquire the company, which currently employs 500 people, for about $700 million.

According to regulators the deal would surely come under the anti-trust scanner but is likely to be approved in the end.