What Starwood’s CEO Is Telling His Employees About the Sale Process

Round four of the Starwood-Marriott-Anbang Group drama began today with a second counteroffer by the Chinese-led consortium to acquire Starwood, a response to last week’s improved bid by Marriott.

The back and forth nature of the bidding process over the last month is more drama than the travel industry is used to. It’s also likely to be confusing to employees, which is why executives are explaining things to team members in internal emails, which are then filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The CEO of Marriott wrote letters to both Starwood and Marriott employees last November, while Starwood’s then-CEO Adam Aron wrote to hotel owners as well.

This morning Starwood CEO Tom Mangas wrote a short note to employees, which he then followed with a Q&A about the state of a merger to “select Starwood associates and Starwood general managers.”