UPDATE 2-Orbitz posts net loss, shares plummet

(Adds share price decline, details, background, analyst comment)

CHICAGO, March 6 (Reuters) - Online travel company Orbitz Worldwide Inc (OWW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday posted a quarterly net loss, pushing its shares down as much as 15 percent.

Excluding one-time items, the company posted a profit on stronger international bookings, although total bookings were flat for the quarter and domestic bookings declined 5 percent.

Orbitz, formerly a unit of Travelport, become a publicly traded company in July. The spinoff is just part of the company's complicated history, which has seen it change hands several times in the last few years. This uneven past continues to weigh on the shares, which launched at $14.90 on the New York Stock Exchange and traded around $5.70 on Thursday.

"I think that the management a long time ago lost focus," said Ben Holmes, publisher of Morningnotes.com. "Do you realize how distracting having your company being bought is to management?"

"It's not a survivor long term," Holmes said.

Orbitz said its fourth-quarter net loss was $11 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with a loss of $5 million a year earlier before its new shares were issued.

The net loss was related to a higher interest expense of $17 million on a $600 million credit line that was taken out when the company went public. Excluding that expense, Orbitz earned 12 cents per share in the quarter, topping expectations for a profit of 11 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

"We sustained strong international growth in the fourth quarter of 2007, with a 43 percent increase in international gross bookings and a 33 percent increase in international revenue as compared to the fourth quarter of 2006," Chief Executive Steve Barnhart said in a statement.