Huge speculation about Google courting ITA Software continues, but will no doubt intensify with detail suggesting the deal was expected to close this week.
A number of sources familiar with the situation say Google and ITA Software were close to agreeing on a deal and had originally planned to announce details by the end of April.
However the process is said to have slowed since the well placed leak to BusinessWeek last week - a burst of pre-deal closure publicity that Google is well known for disliking - although talks are ongoing and a deal is "still very likely".
At first many privately dismissed the reports and suggested that companies from the hardware -software world would be more likely suitors, although this has since cooled and most fingers now point to a deal with Google.
Google and ITA Software have refused to be drawn on the speculation since it emerged last week and, inevitably, spread like wildfire across the tech, business and travel media.
The standard response from Google on both sides of the Atlantic is: "While we’re always talking to various companies about a variety of things, we don’t comment on rumour or speculation."
The deal is expected to be in the region of $1 billion, but some figures have since suggested a value as high as $1.2 billion might be needed if Google wants to get its hands on the ITA business.
The potential acquisition has polarised opinion across the web as both travel and tech sectors struggle to decide what the likely impact of such a deal would be, beyond it clearly having interesting ramifications for ITA's existing client base, especially Microsoft's Bing Travel.