What Barry Diller Told Anxious Expedia Workers About the Future
Skift Take
Expedia Group Chairman Barry Diller flew to Seattle to rally the troops. His message to all the employees around the world was, in essence, the sun will rise tomorrow at the travel giant. Impatient investors aren't quite as sure.
No, you're not going to see Barry Diller sweat.
In an all-hands-on-deck employee meeting Thursday, Expedia Group Chairman and senior executive Barry Diller reassured the troops that the future is bright, and that he's not in any kind of panic mode following the abrupt departures of CEO Mark Okerstrom and Chief Financial Officer Alan Pickerill earlier this month, Skift has learned.
Diller, along with vice chairman Peter Kern were interviewed in a fireside chat by Ariane Gorin, president of Expedia Business Services.
Diller told those in attendance at headquarters in several "watch parties" and many others listening remotely that he and vice chairman Kern will take a deliberative approach in assessing the company’s needs before appointing a new CEO and chief financial officer, according to a senior leader with knowledge of the meeting. The gathering was closed to the press. Expedia had 24,500 employees at the end of 2018.
Diller and Kern are running Expedia following the exits of Okerstrom and Pickerill.
According to a second source, Diller and Kern said the CEO and CFO search is not yet formally under way. They plan on taking time digging into the business, and have no desire to merely fill a couple of open positions.
The two executives said they have no plans to undo Okerstrom's controversial reorganization, and they support the former CEO's "platform path," which sought to combine teams f
