software travel founded 1996 headquarters cambridge massachusetts key people jeremy wertheimer vice president travel gianni marostica commercial director travel products software number of employees 450 parent google website itasoftware.com ita software is a travel industry software division of google formerly an independent company in cambridge massachusetts . the company was founded by jeremy wertheimer a computer scientist from the mit artificial intelligence laboratory and cooper union 1 with his partner richard aiken in 1996 . 2 on july 1 2010 ita agreed to be acquired by google . on april 8 2011 the us department of justice approved the buyout . as part of the agreement google must license ita software to other websites for five years . 3 contents 1 history 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit ita s first product was an airfare search and pricing system called qpx . this system is now used by travel companies such as bing travel cape air cheaptickets kayak.com and orbitz and by airlines such as alitalia american ana united airlines us airways and virgin atlantic . ita also hosts its own website based on qpx although it s not possible to buy tickets from it . ita is known for using programming puzzles to attract and evaluate potential employees since 2001 . some of these puzzles have appeared in ads on boston s mbta subway system . ita is also one of the highest profile companies to base their software on common lisp . 4 in january 2006 ita received 100 million in venture capital money from a syndicate of five investment firms led by battery 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 with air canada 6 to develop a new computer 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 the us dept. of justice and google reached an agreement in terms to allow the purchase and dismiss a potential antitrust lawsuit . 10 on march 1 2012 google and cape air announced that cape air had migrated to ita software s passenger reservations system . 11 see also edit list of global distribution systems computer reservation systems references edit jeremy wertheimer cooper union board of trustees edward hasbrouck the practical nomad blog july 12 2010 google buys ita software part 1 the back story nightly business report for friday april 8th 2011 lisp and ita software move airline travel to a higher altitude . franz inc. howe peter 2006 01 23 . software firm gets 100m in backing . the boston globe . ita software signs deal with air canada . the boston globe . 2006 09 12 . general catalyst partners news air canada suspends implementation of next gen polaris reservations system . atw daily news aug 12 2009 . facts about google s acquisition of ita software . google.com . jul 1 2010 . justice dept. allows google to buy online travel company . the washington post . apr 8 2011 . google is now in the pnr hosting business . papersplease.org . mar 1 2012 . external links edit ita software inc. home retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ita software & oldid 729486342 categories software companies based in massachusettscomputer companies of the united statesairline ticketsbusiness software companiesopentravel alliancetravel technologycommon lisp softwarecompanies based in cambridge massachusettsgoogle acquisitions navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages espa ol edit links this page was last modified on 12 july 2016 at 14 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view