Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, has built a $170B travel empire that includes brands like http://Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak, and OpenTable. Glenn shares insights into how Booking has grown into a global powerhouse, weathering challenges like tsunamis, wars, 9/11, and the COVID-19 pandemic. We dive into the strategy behind the transformative acquisition of http://Booking.com, which now drives 90% of the company’s revenue, and the key lessons Glenn has learned about M&A success. Glenn also discusses how AI could revolutionize travel, from automating customer service to creating seamless traveler-first experiences.

(00:00) Intro

(01:37) Overview of Booking Holdings

(02:31) Early Days of Priceline and Joining the Company

(03:33) Dot-Com Boom and Financial Challenges

(07:28) Travel Industry Resilience

(07:47) Cultural and Economic Factors in Travel

(09:17) Stock Splits and Employee Incentives

(13:34) Acquisition of Booking.com and Active Hotels

(24:20) Growth and Integration of Acquired Companies

(29:11) Artificial Intelligence in Travel

(30:57) Future of Travel and AI Integration

(38:54) The Greatest Acquirers in History

(39:16) Teamwork in Business Acquisitions

(40:48) Challenges in M&A and Regulatory Hurdles

(41:49) Patterns in Successful and Failed Deals

(46:06) Cultural Alignment in Mergers

(50:31) Brand Management and Integration

(54:14) Regulatory Environment and Smart Regulations

(01:00:11) Post-COVID Business Travel Trends

(01:08:24) Leadership Through Crises

(01:15:33) Technological Advancements in Travel

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

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About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.

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