By owner, you must mean a stockholder or the founder because Priceline is a public company. There is no single owner.
As to your second question, pretty much yes. About 10 years ago, Priceline sued Expedia for violating their patent and Priceline won. That's pretty much why Hotwire doesn't offer bidding. And coincidentally, Expedia now owns Hotwire although they didn't at the time of the lawsuit.