Skift Take

A lot of behind-the-scenes work has taken place at Expedia Group under CEO Peter Kern over the past four years. Were the moves successful? That will depend on CEO-in-waiting Ariane Gorin.

Dennis Schaal

In December 2019, Ariane Gorin, president of Expedia Business Services, moderated a fireside chat with Chairman Barry Diller and Vice Chairman Peter Kern at an all-hands employee meeting. Expedia Group had just parted ways with its CEO and CFO, and Kern would soon be named CEO.

On Thursday, in a surprise move, Expedia Group announced that Kern is leaving that post.

Gorin, who has worked at Expedia Group in various executive positions since 2013, will take over as CEO of the company – and it looks vastly different than it did at the time of that employee town hall four years ago.

Here's a look at Expedia Group when Kern became CEO, which was at the beginning of the pandemic, versus the company today.

Expedia Employee Ranks: From 'Bloated' to Trimmed Down

In February 13, 2020, Diller characterized the company as "bloated," and one where the workplace culture was "all life, no work." That may or may not have been true. But less than two weeks later, Expedia Group, which only months earlier opened a new $900 million headquarters and campus on Elliott Bay in Seattle, laid off 12% of its workforce.

Kern said Thursday that Expedia Group today has 30% fewer employees than it did in 2019, and has closed 100 offices.

In 2019, he said, 30% of employees worked in product and tech. That figure is 50% today.<