 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software,Travel |
| Founded | 1996; 29 years ago (1996) |
| Headquarters | 5 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
Key people | Jeremy Wertheimer: Vice President, Travel, Gianni Marostica: Commercial Director, Travel |
| Products | Software |
Number of employees | 450+ |
| Parent | |
| Website | www |
ITA Software is a travel industrysoftware division ofGoogle, formerly an independent company, inCambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Jeremy Wertheimer, a computer scientist from theMIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, with his partner Richard Aiken in 1996.[1] On July 1, 2010, ITA agreed to be acquired by Google. On April 8, 2011, theUS Department of Justice approved the buyout. As part of the agreement, Google was required to license ITA software to other websites for five years.[2]
ITA's first product was an airfare search and pricing system called QPX. This system has been and is used by travel companies such asBing Travel,CheapTickets,Kayak.com, andOrbitz, and byairlines such asAlitalia,American,ANA,Cape Air,Delta Air Lines,United Airlines,US Airways, andVirgin Atlantic. ITA also hosts its own airfare search website based on QPX, called "Matrix", although it is not possible to buy tickets from it.[3]
ITA was known for using programming puzzles to attract and evaluate potential employees since 2001. Some of these puzzles have appeared in ads on Boston'sMBTA subway system. ITA is also one of the highest-profile companies to base their software onCommon Lisp.[4]
In January 2006, ITA received $100 million inventure capital money from a syndicate of five investment firms led byBattery Ventures, marking the largest investment in a software firm in New England in five years.[5]
In September 2006, ITA announced a several-million-dollar deal withAir Canada[6] to develop a newcomputer reservations system to power its reservations, inventory control, seat availability, check-in, and airport operations.[7]In August 2009, Air Canada announced that the project had been suspended.[8]
In July 2010,Google announced the acquisition of ITA for $700 million in cash, subject to DOJ review and approval.[9] On April 8, 2011, theUS Dept. of Justice and Google reached an agreement in terms to allow the purchase and dismiss a potentialantitrust lawsuit.[10]
On March 1, 2012,Google andCape Air announced that Cape Air had migrated to ITA Software'spassenger service system (PSS).[11] One year later, Google announced that it was discontinuing the PSS.[12]
In 2013,Google started offering a simplifiedAPI to QPX called QPX Express; it was discontinued on April 10, 2018.[13]