Liberty Interactive Corporation Acquires Voting Control of TripAdvisor, Inc.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Liberty Interactive Corporation ("Liberty") (Nasdaq: LINTA, LINTB,
LVNTA, LVNTB) and TripAdvisor, Inc. ("TripAdvisor") (Nasdaq: TRIP)
announced today that Liberty has purchased a total of 4,799,848 shares
of common stock of TripAdvisor from Barry Diller and The Diller-von
Furstenberg Family Foundation at a price of $62.50 per share. As part of
the transaction, Mr. Diller's right to control the vote of the shares of
TripAdvisor's common stock and Class B common stock that are
beneficially owned by Liberty has been terminated and Liberty now
controls a majority voting stake in TripAdvisor. Giving effect to the
transactions, Liberty owns and controls 18,159,752 shares of common
stock and 12,799,999 shares of Class B common stock of TripAdvisor,
representing approximately 22% of the equity and 57% of the total votes
of all classes of TripAdvisor common stock. Liberty has attributed the
shares of TripAdvisor common stock that it owns to its Liberty Ventures
tracking stock group.
Concurrently with the transaction, Mr. Diller resigned as Chairman of
the Board of Directors and as Senior Executive of TripAdvisor, but will
continue serving as a director of TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor will make an
announcement when the Board of Directors has elected a new Chairman of
the Board of Directors.
"Ever since we acquired TripAdvisor in 2004 it's been one of the
smoothest and most trouble-free growth stories I've ever known," said
Barry Diller. "During that time it grew from a startup with $23 million
in annual revenues to a $5 billion plus public company with a global
brand that operates the world's largest travel site. Its great progress
has happened because of the superb talents of its co-founder and CEO,
Steve Kaufer, and the team he leads. My only reason for resigning as
Chairman and disposing of my interests is that I have more obligations
than time and transferring control of TripAdvisor to Liberty is
something I'm very comfortable with — Liberty has proven itself a fine
steward and leader of its controlled businesses."
"It has been a pleasure to work with Barry and we appreciate his
outstanding leadership through the years. I thank him for his numerous
contributions and look forward to his continued involvement with our
Company as a member of our Board," said Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO
of TripAdvisor. "Liberty has been an important stockholder of ours and
we look forward to continuing this relationship in the future."
"We are pleased to take voting control of our longstanding stake in
TripAdvisor," said Greg Maffei, Liberty President and CEO. "TripAdvisor
is an established leader in the travel industry and our increased
investment in the company is a strong addition to our portfolio."
About Liberty Interactive Corporation
Liberty Interactive Corporation operates and owns interests in a broad
range of digital commerce businesses. Those interests are currently
attributed to two tracking stock groups: Liberty Interactive Group and
Liberty Ventures Group. The Liberty Interactive Group (Nasdaq: LINTA,
LINTB) is primarily focused on digital commerce and consists of Liberty
Interactive Corporation's subsidiaries Backcountry.com,
Bodybuilding.com,
Celebrate
Interactive (including Evite
and Liberty Advertising), CommerceHub,
MotoSport,
Provide
Commerce, QVC,
Right
Start, and Liberty Interactive Corporation's interests in HSN
and Lockerz.
The Liberty Ventures Group (Nasdaq: LVNTA, LVNTB) consists of Liberty
Interactive Corporation's non-consolidated assets, including interests
in AOL, Expedia, Interval Leisure Group, Time Warner, Time Warner Cable,
Tree.com (Lending Tree), TripAdvisor and various green energy
investments.
About TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor® is the world's largest travel site,* enabling
travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted
advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and
planning features with seamless links to booking tools. TripAdvisor
branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with
more than 60 million unique monthly visitors*, and over 75 million
reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 30 countries worldwide,
including China under daodao.com.
TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division
that provides the tourism industry access to millions of monthly
TripAdvisor visitors.
TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) manages and operates websites under 19
other travel media brands, and together the sites attract more than 74
million unique monthly visitors.** TripAdvisor, Inc.'s travel
media brands include www.airfarewatchdog.com,
www.bookingbuddy.com,
www.cruisecritic.com,
www.everytrail.com,
www.familyvacationcritic.com,
www.flipkey.com,
www.holidaylettings.co.uk,
www.holidaywatchdog.com,
www.independenttraveler.com,
www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com,
www.sniqueaway.com,
www.smartertravel.com,
www.tingo.com,
www.travel-library.com,
www.travelpod.com,
www.virtualtourist.com,
www.whereivebeen.com,
and www.kuxun.cn.
*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, Worldwide, July
2012
**Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor, Inc. and its
subsidiaries, Worldwide, July 2012
©2012 TripAdvisor, Inc. All rights reserved.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this press release regarding management's future
expectations, beliefs, intentions, goals, strategies, plans or
prospects, including, without limitation, statements relating to
TripAdvisor, Liberty or the transactions described herein may constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws.
Forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as
"anticipate," "believe," "could," "could increase the likelihood,"
"estimate," "expect," "intend," "is planned," "may," "should," "will,"
"will enable," "would be expected," "look forward," "may provide,"
"would" or similar terms, variations of such terms or the negative of
those terms. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press
release, which are not strictly historical statements, including,
without limitation, the expected closing date, the expected leadership
changes, and other statements regarding management's plans, objectives
and strategies, constitute forward-looking statements. Such
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors including those risks, uncertainties and
factors detailed in Liberty's and/or TripAdvisor's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of such risks,
uncertainties and factors, Liberty's or TripAdvisor's actual results may
differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements
discussed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained
herein. Liberty and TripAdvisor are providing the information in this
press release as of this date and assumes no obligations to update the
information included in this press release or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Liberty Interactive Corporation
Courtnee Ulrich, 720-875-5420
Source: Liberty Interactive Corporation
News Provided by Acquire Media
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