Expedia will cut 3,000 jobs to simplify business

New York

EXPEDIA Group Inc said it's cutting thousands of jobs, striving to simplify the "bloated organisation" and return the online travel giant to more disciplined growth.

The staff reductions will affect about 3,000 employees, including 500 people in Expedia's Seattle-based headquarters, said Josh deBerge, a company spokesman. The workers will begin to be notified this week. Expedia didn't tie the job cuts to effects of the coronavirus outbreak, which executives earlier this month said added "uncertainty" to the company's profit outlook.

"Today, Expedia Group announced our intent to simplify how we do business," Mr deBerge said on Monday in a statement. "This includes stopping certain projects and activities, reducing use of vendors and contractors and eliminating approximately 12 per cent of our direct workforce." Expedia announced the job cuts in an email to its global workforce, which numbered 25,400 as at Dec 31.

"Following our disappointing 2019 business performance and our change in senior-most management, the travel leadership team has spent the last few months determining a better way forward," the email read. "After consulting with leaders around the globe, we recognise that we have been pursuing growth in an unhealthy and undisciplined way."

Barry Diller, Expedia's chairman, foreshadowed the job cuts earlier this month during an earnings conference call. "We were a bloated organisation," he said on the Feb 13 call.

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Over the last few years Expedia has been chasing growth in the intensely competitive travel sector by adding employees and layers of complexity "until frankly very few people could figure out what the hell they were supposed to do during the day", he said. He added he was targeting US$300 million to US$500 million in run rate cost-savings in 2020.

"I am confident that simplifying our business and clarifying our focus by making these difficult changes, our teams can get back to working on the projects and priorities that make the most sense for us, our customers and our partners," Mr Diller said on Monday in a statement.

In December, Expedia chief executive officer Mark Okerstrom and chief financial officer Alan Pickerill were ousted after clashing with the board over a disappointing growth outlook. Mr Diller, the 78-year-old billionaire media mogul and chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, has been running the company's day-to-day operations, along with vice chairman Peter Kern, ever since.

The company is offering employees severance packages, including extended healthcare coverage, according to a person familiar with the issue who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

In the email to its staff, Expedia leadership acknowledged this transition would be difficult. "Great tech companies have walked this same path in order to come back stronger and more competitive than ever. We have restarted the journey," the email said. BLOOMBERG