Expedia Group has raised $3.2bn in new capital, including $1.2bn equity from Apollo and Silver Lake, the latter having also recently invested in Airbnb.
The group names its new CEO as Peter Kern, who has been the group’s vice chairman since 2018.
The company said that the equity investment of $1.2bn by Apollo and Silver Lake would be non-voting and non-convertible preferred stock. It will also entail approximately $2bn in new debt financing.
Barry Diller, chairman & senior executive, Expedia Group, said: “We have one mandate – to conserve cash, survive, and use this time to reconstruct a stronger enterprise to serve the future of travel. We are unable to make any predictions as to when travel will rebound but we emphatically believe that it will, for....'if there's life, there's travel.’"
Commenting on Kern’s appointment, Diller said: “When we changed management in December, Mr. Kern joined with me in operational supervision of the company. In these last five months, he has shown outstanding leadership in all aspects of the business, first in a wide reorganisation and then dealing with the impact of the Corona crisis on our business. He now knows all aspects of the business, and we are truly lucky that he is now available to devote his full time to Expedia.”
Kern was most recently CEO of Tribune Media.
Diller said: “Since the first of the year, this company has gone through multiple challenging stages. First, the reorganisation that resulted from the management change, which has now been mostly completed – we were fortunate we got to this prior to the crisis.
“Second, and ongoing, dealing with the crisis itself, cutting our costs everywhere, and today announcing additional financing, which, while the usual strain, was led flawlessly by Messrs. Kern and Hart. And, to come in the next months, an intensified process to recalibrate our organisation for the future. We've learned such an enormous amount over these almost five months – we're going to put that to great and definitive use as we come out of this period. I believe we'll have a far finer operation coming out of this crisis than going into it.
“We have the financing to carry us through, a superb newly named senior management team, and a very clear focus for whatever the future brings.”