Priceline has received approval from the Federal Trade Commission to go forward with its $1.8 billion acquisition of meta-search site Kayak.

Priceline is expected to complete the acquisition of the travel search engine by the end of March.

The Priceline Group is a leader in global online hotel reservations, with over 270,000 participating hotels worldwide.

The Group is composed of four primary brands - Booking.com, priceline.com, Agoda.com and Rentalcars.com - and several ancillary brands.

The Priceline Group provides online travel services in over 180 countries in Europe, North America, South America, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa.