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TripAdvisor Surprises, Joins Expedia In Bolstering Sector

Online travel review firm TripAdvisor ( TRIP ) stock shot up Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales and higher profits from its new instant booking system. TripAdvisor stock was up 15%, near 62, in afternoon trading in the stock market today . The company owns websites such as tripadvisor.com and oyster.com. Analysts have expressed concern about a slowing global economy, but late Wednesday, Expedia ( EXPE ) executives assuaged those concerns and said that key markets like the U.S. and Europe remained strong. Expedia stock was up 8% in afternoon trading Thursday, as analysts responded positively to the company’s HomeAway and Orbitz acquisitions . Early Thursday, TripAdvisor said that sales rose 7.3% from Q4 2014 to $309 million. Analysts had estimated $298 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. Earnings clocked in at 45 cents per share minus items, which also beat analyst expectations of 33 cents. On the company’s earnings conference call with analysts, TripAdvisor executives said that the instant booking feature — which allows shoppers to book hotels directly from its website instead of from a third party — expanded to nine more countries in Q4. The online travel reviews company debuted the feature during 2014 in the U.S. and U.K. Display advertising sales growth of 17% contributed to the revenue beat, and subscription revenue rose 23% in Q4. Net earnings per share fell to 2 cents from 25 cents in the year-earlier quarter. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney called the company a “great asset” but “still a risky strategy.” He says that the company has a large customer platform of over 300 million visitors monthly worldwide, though its growth strategy of features such as instant booking carries risks because it may conflict with Priceline ( PCLN ) and Expedia’s interests. Priceline is set to report Q4 results Feb. 17 before the market opens.

Facebook Forerunner Myspace Still Alive, Under New Ownership

Facebook ( FB ) forerunner Myspace now has a new owner — Time Inc. ( TIME ). The New York-based magazine publisher of People , Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune announced Thursday that it has acquired Viant, an advertising technology company that owns Myspace through a previous acquisition. No terms were disclosed. Founded in 1999, Viant owns and operates several digital ad technology and media companies. “This acquisition is game-changing for us,” Time CEO Joe Ripp said in a statement. “Marketers are selecting media partners that have either data-driven capabilities or premium content; we will be able to deliver both in a single platform and will stand apart from those that offer just one or the other. “In other words, we will be able to deliver advertisers’ messages targeted to optimal audiences across all types of devices, along with the ability to measure return on investment.” The social network and photo-sharing site then known as MySpace (with a capital “S”) launched in 2003 and quickly overtook another popular social site of the time, Friendster, to become the dominant social network. Then, in 2004, Facebook emerged and blew both social networking pioneers out of the water to become — and remain — the industry leader. Users and advertisers quickly left Myspace. Friendster “paused its service” as of last year. With the Time acquisition, Myspace has been sold three times. At its peak in 2005, Myspace was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. ( NWS ) for $580 million. In 2011, the fading social network was sold to ad network and Viant subsidiary Specific Media for $35 million. Specific Media enlisted music superstar Justin Timberlake to help it re-launch the renamed Myspace in 2013, with a focus on music and with a $20 million ad blitz. By early 2015, Myspace was attracting 50 million users a month. Time was down 9%, near 12, in afternoon trading in the stock market today , hitting an all-time low after posting Q4 EPS ex items that fell short of expectations. Facebook stock was up 0.2%, near 101, despite a down day for the market overall.

The Future Of VR As Told By Oculus, Google, PlayStation Execs

Loading the player… At this week’s Vision Summit for virtual reality and augmented reality in Hollywood, executives from Facebook ( FB )-owned Oculus, Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google and Sony ( SNE )-owned PlayStation shared their insights about the future of VR. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said that both hardware and software developers need to be successful for VR to be prosperous, with two key measures of success being dollars spent on content and hours spent playing content. Oculus Headset and Rift-ready PC bundles will go on presale next Tuesday, starting at $1,499. Oculus is offering the bundles at a discounted rate to get more gear out there. Google’s VP of VR, Clay Bavor, pressed the point that the Internet giant’s goal is “VR for everyone.” He said that some 5 million of the cheap Google Cardboard viewers — which use smartphones to show VR content — had shipped as of the end of 2015, with 30 million Google Play Store app downloads. He said that there’s “similar momentum” on Apple ( AAPL ) iOS. Google is also working in the augmented reality space with its Project Tango, which enables mobile devices “to navigate the physical world similar to how we do as humans.” Sony is one of the companies working with NASA on robot control and space exploration demos. Microsoft ’s ( MSFT ) HoloLens is also said to have space applications. Dr. Richard Marks, the director of PlayStation Magic Lab, said that Sony’s VR platform will have the capability to be used with other entertainment content besides games, including movies, painting, sculpting and potentially even live concerts.