Upstart BKNG last week officially pushed PCLN off the Nasdaq ticker.
The Priceline Group, the holding company for brands like Booking.com and Priceline.com, and which traded under PCLN, changed its name to Booking Holdings, trading as BKNG, to reflect the growth Booking.com has seen in recent years.
The company's most recent financial earnings call was held Feb. 27, on the first day the BKNG ticker symbol made its debut. On the call, CEO Glenn Fogel said the company has changed since its founding in 1997, when Priceline.com and its Name Your Own Price tool were introduced.
Since then, the group has acquired a number of brands, including Amsterdam-based Booking.com, which was added to the mix in July 2005 and has since outpaced Priceline.com's growth.
Fogel said that Booking.com averages more than 1 million room nights booked per day.
"Booking.com drives a significant majority of our company's total operating results," he said. "We believe this name change better reflects the truly global operation that we have become today, more closely aligns our parent company name with our largest business and connects our collective brands -- Booking.com, Priceline.com, Kayak, Agoda, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable -- under a unified name."
He concluded: "Booking Holdings reflects our brands' shared purpose to book services that further our mission to help people experience the world."
Analyst Henry Harteveldt, founder of Atmosphere Research Group, said the name change was smart, as Booking.com's dominance within the company has become more pronounced.
"Booking.com is truly a global brand," he said. "Booking.com is operating in far more countries than Priceline. So it makes complete sense for the company to embrace the name of its primary brand, as opposed to its heritage brand, which was Priceline."
Phocuswright analyst Alice Jong agreed, asserting that Booking.com has the stronger brand recognition globally.
"I think the name change really affirms that though the group is a U.S.-based company and the original Priceline.com site is used most by U.S. consumers, it has much bigger ambitions than the domestic business," Jong said.
Harteveldt predicted that the name change would basically be a nonissue for consumers. While the holding company's name is changing, Priceline.com will continue to operate with its unique Name Your Own Price product for hotels.
"From an investor standpoint, from an employee recruitment and retention standpoint, from a cultural standpoint, there's no question that Priceline made a very smart acquisition with Booking," Harteveldt said, "and then recognized that Booking is the smarter name to use for the organization's corporate brand."