TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor has gone public: Eleven years after it began life above Kosta’s Pizza in Needham, and seven years after it was acquired by Barry Diller’s InterActive Corp. for about $200 million, TripAdvisor is finally gaining a NASDAQ listing of its very own. The company starts trading tomorrow under the symbol TRIP, and it will also be included in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. I briefly worked for TripAdvisor one summer when I was an undergraduate. It was a great place to work. One anecdote always stuck with me. I don’t even know if it’s true, but I heard it from at least two people while working at the firm. The CEO, Steve Kaufer, supposedly hates the shade of green

I recently learned that Expedia is planning to spin-off TripAdvisor, with hopes of an IPO later this year. My initial reaction: this is a win-win-win. Expedia gets to cash out, and use the proceeds however they wish. TripAdvisor (employees) will likely have more flexibility to be more aggressive and daring without having to worry about what the parent company says, or whether there are conflicts of interest.* And most importantly, if the company gains the capacity to be more innovative, we’ll all have an even better travel site. I briefly worked at TripAdvisor in the summer of 2005. From my limited experience, I got the impression that it’s a well-run company, with dedicated, serious, and smart employees. In fact I once overheard

Tag: TripAdvisor

Shades of Green

TripAdvisor Going Public