What’s Behind Barry Diller’s Patient Approach to Expedia?
Skift Take
It increasingly looks like what we expected will happen will come true: Chairman Barry Diller is likely to make Expedia Group's acting boss Peter Kern the permanent CEO. It's very probable, too, that Diller is shopping the online agency giant to potential buyers. But who would buy?
After Expedia Group Chairman and Senior Executive Barry Diller fired the travel giant's CEO and chief financial officer in early December, investors pushed the share price up by 6 percent. Continued share price gains since then reflect the hope that new management will boost the competitiveness of the online travel agency.
Yet not everyone has been as enthusiastic. Some investment analysts and company insiders speculate that Diller's looking for a buyer for Expedia.
One factor driving uncertainty is that Diller said the company wasn't searching immediately for a CEO during a December 19 meeting with Expedia employees, as Skift reported from Seattle at the time. He had already appointed Expedia Vice
