Tripadvisor rejects takeover offers and collapses on Wall Street. The group that controls the review portal, The Fork and Viator judged the proposals received from investment funds of the caliber of Apollo, Permira, CVC, EQT and Softbank to be inadequate. The announcement caused Tripadvisor shares to plummet by 28% on the stock market, also because it came at the same time as the publication of quarterly accounts that were anything but exciting. Between January and March, despite having increased revenues by 6% to 395 million dollars, the company lost 42 million.
The fund offers to Liberty Media
Despite the disappointing numbers, Tripadvisor’s special committee determined that “at this time there is no transaction with third-party investors that is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.” The special committee was established last February within the board to evaluate the sales and alliance offers received by Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings’ and advanced by large international investment funds. The holding is the majority shareholder of Tripadvisor with 56%, in turn controlled by the giant Liberty Media of the magnate John Malone (owner of Formula 1, among other things).
The Tripadvisor group
Tripadvisor is listed on the Nasdaq, the index of technology stocks, where it capitalizes around 2.5 billion dollars. The group is made up of three activities. The first is the review portal Tripadvisor which closed the quarter with revenues down 2% to 240 million dollars. The second is The Fork, the booking site, which increased its turnover by 17% to 41 million dollars. The latest division is Viator, a digital tour operator which saw turnover rise by 23% to 141 million dollars.
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