Preview Travel started out making travel shows for television. By 1997 the San Francisco company had become one of the first places to book a trip online, and its logo sat next to AOL's and Excite's on the prospectus cover. Leisure and small business travelers could search fares, reserve flights, hotels and rental cars, and read travel guides. The company still produced travel programs for broadcast and cable TV, and sold online ads to travel brands.

Preview Media Goes Online

The company was incorporated in California in March 1985 as Preview Media. It produced travel programming for TV, with sponsors such as MCI. The bet was that the same audience would rather plan and book trips on a computer. Preview Travel built its own booking service and placed it inside America Online and Excite, the busiest doorways to the web. Advertisers paid for banners and links that reached travelers ready to spend.

Folded Into Travelocity

Preview Travel sold 2.5 million shares at $11 in November 1997, raising $27.5 million, and listed on Nasdaq as PTVL. Hambrecht & Quist and NationsBanc Montgomery Securities led the deal. In 2000 Sabre negotiated a merger of Travelocity with Preview Travel. The combined Travelocity.com listed on Nasdaq, with Sabre owning about 70 percent, and Preview Travel's own stock was deregistered in March 2000.

Cover: English Travellers, Carle Vernet. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for English travellers on the road (travel).