Skift Take
The current dance between Liberty and Barry Diller over Expedia is simply the latest in a long line of deals that has always left Diller looking the smarter man.
John Malone, the billionaire chairman of Liberty Interactive Corp., rejoined the board of online travel company Expedia Inc. less than a month after resigning as a director.
Malone was elected to replace William Fitzgerald, who resigned, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Liberty, which is an Expedia shareholder, has the right to nominate two directors to the board based on an agreement signed a year ago.
Malone previously served as an Expedia board member from August 2005 until Nov. 29, 2012. The following day, Expedia released a filing, saying that Pamela Coe, a Liberty executive, was replacing Malone as a director after his resignation. Earlier this month, Liberty bought about $300 million of stock in TripAdvisor Inc., gaining voting control of the travel review site that was spun out of Expedia.
Expedia fell 2.2 percent to $59.59 at the close in New York today. The stock has more than doubled this year.
Representatives from Bellevue, Washington-based Expedia and Englewood, Colorado-based Liberty didn’t return calls for comment.
Editors: Reed Stevenson and Stephen West.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at [email protected].
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