Google Wants To Buy Airline IT company ITA, Could Cost $1 Billion

Google is said to be eyeing airline IT company ITA, a travel software firm that provides information to Kayak.com, CheapTickets, Bing Travel and Orbitz.

The price tag, expected to be around $1 billion, would allow Google to more closely compete with the success of Bing Travel, while providing a ton of information for the companies Google Android OS.

The deal is far from over but it’s looking like a big win for Google if they manage to pull it off, especially with the company already controlling much of the travel section with free Google Maps (including turn-by-turn voice guided directions), Google Earth integration with various flight tracking systems and an ever increasing mobile OS footprint. [Gizmodo via Reuters ]

What do you think? Would the purchase of ITA be a big win for Google?

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