TripAdvisor to go public
By Shalini Singh

TripAdvisor is the world's largest travel site and offers holistic information to plan a successful trip. TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by TripAdvisor LLC, attracts more than 50 million unique monthly visitors across 18 popular travel brands. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 40 million unique monthly visitors, 20 million members, and over 45 million reviews and opinions.  The sites operate in 29 countries including India.

Expedia announced today that its Board of Directors has preliminarily approved a plan to separate Expedia, Inc. into two publicly traded companies:

•TripAdvisor, which will include the domestic and international operations associated with the TripAdvisor Media Group, which includes its flagship brand as well as 18 other travel media and advertising brands, and

•Expedia, Inc., which will continue to include the domestic and international operations of the company's travel transaction brands including Expedia.com, Hotels.com, eLong, Hotwire, Egencia, ExpediaAffiliate Network, CruiseShipCenters, Venere, Classic Vacations and carrentals.com. 

It is anticipated that the transaction will take the form of a distribution of stock of TripAdvisor to Expedia stockholders or a reclassification of Expedia stock, with the holders of Expedia stock receiving a proportionate amount of TripAdvisor stock, in either case in a tax free transaction.  It is expected that Expedia's dual-class equity capital structure and the governance arrangements between Barry Diller and Liberty Media will be mirrored at TripAdvisor following the transaction.