MARCH 17, 2024 — 208 LAYOFFS IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
The company will lay off 208 Seattle office workers in May 2024 amid the company’s global restructuring. The cuts will impact 6% of Expedia’s approximately 3,500 Seattle-based employees.
According to a company spokesperson, “Given the recent completion of many significant technical milestones in Expedia Group’s transformation, the business continues to evaluate the appropriate allocation of resources to ensure the most important work continues to be prioritized.”
FEBRUARY 29, 2024 — 1,500 EMPLOYEES
According to the company’s SEC filing, “On February 22, 2024, Expedia Group, Inc. committed to restructuring actions to recalibrate resources in light of the Company’s organizational and technological transformation. Subject to compliance with local consultation obligations where applicable, the restructuring actions are expected to result in a workforce reduction impacting approximately 1,500 employees and the communication of such actions to a portion of affected employees was commenced on February 26, 2024.
A company spokesperson noted, “Given the recent completion of many significant technical milestones in Expedia Group’s transformation, the business continues to evaluate the appropriate allocation of resources to ensure the most important work continues to be prioritized. As a result, this year, we will be reviewing our operations, which we expect will result in approximately 1,500 roles being impacted across the globe. While this review will result in the elimination of some roles, it also allows the company to invest in core strategic areas for growth.”
MARCH 26, 2021 — LESS THAN 100 LAYOFFS?
Expedia Group has made an undisclosed number of layoffs.
According to a company spokesperson, “We are continuing to simplify and reprioritize resources across the company to meet our business and traveler needs,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “These are strategic actions, and we are not having mass reductions. When making these decisions, we always strive to handle them respectfully.”
MARCH 5, 2020 — Original Post…
Seattle, Washington-based Expedia Group, an online travel shopping company for consumers and small businesses, has announced that they will be undertaking a reorganization that will see employee headcount reduced by 12% or an estimated 3,000 layoffs. An estimated 500 employees will be laid off from the new 40-acre waterfront campus in Seattle.
Expedia Group Chairman Barry Diller told investment analysts…
“We've somewhat become a kind of consultant-led and wildly complex business. I said and I think sclerotic and bloated. And I'll give you one anecdote that kind of rang in my ears that I'd heard, I don't know, I guess, a month and a half or two months ago kind of out there in Seattle that, at Amazon, the whole concept of work and life balance that, at Amazon, it was all work and no life, and then Expedia was all life and no work.
Now that's an enormous exaggeration. We've got wonderful people in the business. This is not damning our employees. But for several years, we really lost clarity and discipline.
So we're changing a great deal. We're stopping this too-large complexity. We're simplifying our strategy. We're stopping doing dumb things and starting to do what we think are good things.
So from doing that dumb to doing this smart, here are a few examples. From wasteful activities that weren't core to our business, to actually driving sustained growth. From every brand working in silos around the world to one strategy on marketing and the geographies across all of our brands. From our reliance on Google and Metasearch, to aggressively moving to grow our own direct business and have loyal relationships with our customers.
The separate teams and data that are dispersed all over the place to one platform drive the entire company. From an air business, we basically took for granted as just another line of business, to actually prioritizing it, energizing it as a true competitive differentiator. And from chasing all these grand goals to focusing on day-to-day execution and making that customer experience great. So we're in.”
In an email to employees …
“Team Expedia Group –
Following our disappointing 2019 business performance and our change in senior-most management, the Travel Leadership Team has spent the last few months determining a better way forward. A major reason for our management change was the deep belief from Barry, Peter, and the Board that while travel remains rich with opportunity, our Company needed a fresh and forward look at clarifying our strategy and simplifying our operations.
After consulting with leaders around the globe, we recognize that we have been pursuing growth in an unhealthy and undisciplined way. The accountability for our results lies with the Travel Leadership Team, and we are committed to fundamental changes in our approach to improve success. Moving forward, we will exert more discipline in setting priorities and allocating resources, simplify our business processes and inter-dependencies, raise the bar on performance standards, and demonstrate and demand accountability for results.
Today, we are announcing our intent to reduce and eliminate certain projects, activities, teams, and roles to streamline and focus our organization. In geographies where we have clarity, we will start implementing these intended changes this week by notifying individuals. In others, we will be initiating consultations with employees and their representatives to discuss our proposals.
Transitions like this are difficult as the impact is felt by teammates, colleagues, and friends we have known and partnered with through ups and downs. For those who will be leaving, we thank you for your many contributions to Expedia Group and wish you safe travels as you find your next opportunity. For the many who are continuing forward, travel is intensely competitive and demands our very best leadership, innovation, collaboration, and execution to win. This is what we are asking of you and demanding of ourselves, along with the day-to-day discipline that will make us a more nimble and thriving company for years to come.
Great tech companies have walked this same path in order to come back stronger and more competitive than ever. We have restarted the journey and bringing the world within reach is in our hands. Let’s redouble our efforts for our customers, our partners, our investors, and ourselves to make Expedia Group the successful, growing, and winning company we can all be proud of.
The Travel Leadership Team”
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?