Expedia Group expects about 1,500 roles to be impacted, primarily in its Product & Technology division, under an operational review announced in an internal memo to the online travel giant’s employees from CEO Peter Kern today.
“With so much technical achievement over the last 12 months and so much tech debt behind us, we now are obliged to take a close look at roles, skills, teams, and locations to ensure that our resources are focused in the right areas,” Kern wrote in the memo, obtained by GeekWire. “While this review will result in us eliminating some roles, it will also allow us to continue to invest in core strategic areas.”
Expedia Group announced Feb. 8 that Kern will be stepping down as CEO in May, replaced by Ariane Gorin, currently president of Expedia for Business. Kern will remain vice chairman and stay on the board.
In a statement Monday, an Expedia Group spokesperson confirmed the key points of Kern’s memo, including the fact that the operational review “will result in approximately 1,500 roles being impacted across the globe” this year.
Julie Whalen, the Expedia Group chief financial officer, hinted at the possibility of cutbacks in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call on Feb. 8, saying at the time that the company was “taking a very close look at streamlining our cost structure to align with the next phase of our journey.”
Expedia Group made widespread cutbacks as part of a restructuring just prior to the pandemic, after the ouster of its CEO and CFO in December 2019. Media mogul Barry Diller, Expedia Group’s chairman, and Kern, its vice chairman, took over day-to-day management at the time, prior to Kern’s appointment as CEO in April 2020.
COVID-19 travel restrictions hit the company hard in the months that followed, along with the rest of the travel industry, but the company has since rebounded, with record annual revenue of $12.8 billion and profits of $797 million in 2023.
After peaking at more than 25,000 employees in 2019, the company employed 14,800 people as of 2021. The company has made smaller cutbacks in recent years, including an unspecified number of jobs last year in its Traveler Products team, part of Product & Technology division. However, its total employment still rose to 17,100 at the end of 2023, with about half of those positions in tech roles, according to Expedia’s annual 10-K filing.
Expedia Group includes brands such as vrbo, Orbitz, Hotwire, Trivago, and Hotels.com in addition to the flagship Expedia.com. The company has unified the tech platform for its different brands in recent years, and last year launched a unified travel loyalty program called One Key for Expedia, Hotels.com and vrbo.
Read the full memo from Kern below.
Team,
We’ve gone through a massive transformation and changed almost every aspect of our business, including how we’re structured, how our teams work together, and what we’re focused on to deliver the best experiences for our travelers and partners. Through this journey we have consistently had to evaluate how we allocate resources to the most important work to ensure we are as efficient as possible in driving our growth.
With so much technical achievement over the last 12 months and so much tech debt behind us, we now are obliged to take a close look at roles, skills, teams, and locations to ensure that our resources are focused in the right areas. As a result, this year we will be reviewing our operations which we expect will result in approximately 1,500 roles being impacted across the globe, mainly in our Product & Technology division. As always, we will be engaging in consultation with local employee representatives, where applicable, before making any final decisions. While this review will result in us eliminating some roles, it will also allow us to continue to invest in core strategic areas.
Where we already have clarity on the proposed changes, we will be notifying employees as soon as possible. If your role is impacted or potentially affected, you can expect to hear details from either your leader, the People Team, or your local employee representative within the next week.
I know my message may make some of you feel anxious, so I wanted you to hear this news directly from me. We are extremely grateful for every Expedian’s contributions, and I know we wouldn’t be where we are today without the contributions of every member of our team. While the needs of a company may evolve, this does not diminish the contributions you have made to our success now and in the future.
It is never easy to say goodbye to colleagues. For those of you who do end up leaving us, a sincere thank you and we wish you every success in your future endeavors. We will be doing everything we can to support you, including providing severance packages, extended access to the Employee Assistance Program, and providing support for those who want to apply for another role internally.
Thank you to everyone who has helped get us to this point in our transformation. Please treat each other with empathy and take advantage of our wellbeing resources if you need support.
PK
