Booking airfares pays almost nothing. When I worked at an OTA (now only a brand of someone else) 4 years ago I think we got $10 at most, likely even less today.
The article says it all. Their parent company came up with a different way to do corporate travel solutions...
Or its boring, corporate parent got bored of its fun, little, upstart adopted child. I can't read press releases of this kind without thinking "soulless corporate decision based just on money". Maybe Hipmunk was making $$ but the corporate parent wanted it to make $$$.
Too bad. Hipmunk had a lovely UI and was very useful. I hate how acquisitions (and acquihires in particular) cannibalize and destroy awesome little products.