Kayak’s IPO Moves Forward, Prices Shares At $22-$25

Kayak’s perpetually-delayed IPO finally moved forward today, as the company has officially announced it has priced its shares between $22 and $25, and will begin trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “KYAK.”

In the most recent SEC filing, the company said it’s going to offer 3.5 million shares, in a deal led by Morgan Stanley – Stanley’s first since the Facebook IPO. Other banks participating include Deutsche Bank, Piper Jaffray, Stifel Nicolaus and Pacific Crest.

The IPO will be for Class A shares, and all shares issued prior to the IPO will be converted to Class B. In the March quarter, Kayak had revenue of $73.3 million, up 39% from $52.7 million in the same quarter last year. Net income was $4.1 million, or 11 cents per share.

The Kayak IPO has been a long time coming. IPO docs were first filed in November 2010. But as reported in September 2011, the company shelved its plans for the IPO until market conditions improved. Depending on whom you ask, that may have meant either waiting until the IPO market stabilized or until the company’s erratic earnings did. (Or likely, both). In March, the company reported 2011 revenue was up 32% to $225 million and net income was up 21%, again fueling chatter about when the IPO would materialize.

Kayak says it has now processed over 310 million user queries for travel info, growth of over 45% over the three months ending in March 31. Meanwhile, Kayak’s mobile apps have been downloaded over 15 million times since their debut in March 2009. During the past quarter, those apps were downloaded 3 million times, or 43% growth over the same time last year. Kayak now has 185 employees, and websites in the U.S. and 15 other countries.

Since the time of its original filing, Kayak has been focused on product advancements, and launched a redesigned iPad app, updated its website’s UI, creating a more universal consumer experience across web, mobile and apps, and it launched direct booking for flights. It also hit a few stumbles, such as when its first-ever CFO Willard (Bill) Smith, who joined in May of 2011 to help Kayak move towards an IPO, left the company for a competitor.