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    Expedia To Spin Off TripAdvisor As A Public Company In Q3 2011

    Leena Rao

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    Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

    Thursday, April 7th, 2011
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    Travel search and booking giant Expedia, which is traded on the Nasdaq under ‘EXPE,’ is spinning off trip reviews site TripAdvisor as a public company. In a release, Expedia said that its Board of Directors has preliminarily approved the plan to separate Expedia into two publicly traded companies.

    Expedia/IAC must feel that spinning off TripAdvisor as a public company could be a financially lucrative move. TripAdvisor, which was founded in 2000, was originally bought by IAC in for $212 million in 2004. IAC spun off Expedia, which included TripAdvisor, in 2005. The newly formed TripAdvisor would include all of the domestic and international operations, including its flasghipsite and 18 other travel media and advertising brands.

    According to the release: It is anticipated that the transaction will take the form of a distribution of stock of TripAdvisor to Expedia stockholders or a reclassification of Expedia stock, with the holders of Expedia stock receiving a proportionate amount of TripAdvisor stock, in either case in a tax free transaction. It is expected that Expedia’s dual-class equity capital structure and the governance arrangements between Barry Diller and Liberty Media will be mirrored at TripAdvisor following the transaction.

    The transaction is still subject to final approval by Expedia’s Board of Directors and the company says that it will probably seek stockholder approval of the transaction. The proposed spin-off is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2011.

    Crunchbase

    Company: Expedia
    Website: expedia.com
    Launch Date: 1996
    IPO: NASDAQ:EXPE

    Expedia.com is an Internet-based travel agency and a part of Expedia, Inc.. It books airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages, and various attractions and services via the World Wide Web and telephone travel agents. The site uses the Sabre reservation system as their main Global reservations system. The company’s main web businesses include Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com and TripAdvisor.com. The company also offers services for corporate travel and travel services in Europe and Asia. Expedia companies also operate internationally...

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