The real winner in the TripAdvisor stake sale is -- surprise, surprise -- Barry Diller
Skift Take
The Liberty Media-Barry Diller deal for control of TripAdvisor is all about profits and taxes, and not about a change in strategic direction for the hotel-review site.
Don't expect Liberty Media's new controlling stake in TripAdvisor to trigger any big operational changes any time soon.
Although Barry Diller ceded power to Liberty Media, which will name a new chairman of TripAdvisor, Diller remains a TripAdvisor director, as do Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Expedia vice chairman Victor Kaufman. Liberty Media has been a long-time investor in Expedia, and TripAdvisor since the late 2011 spinoff.
That being said, one TripAdvisor competitor mused: "The Liberty people are smart as hell. The CEO, Greg Maffei, was the CFO of Microsoft when they IPOed Expedia so he knows
