Seattle-based travel company Expedia Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE) has laid off an undisclosed number of employees, the company confirmed to the Business Journal on Tuesday.
Fewer than 100 jobs were cut. Multiple LinkedIn posts indicate the layoffs affected product roles. Expedia has 16,500 employees across more than 50 countries, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing last month, including over 4,800 local employees.
"We are continuing to simplify and reprioritize resources across the company to meet our business and traveler needs," an Expedia spokesperson said in a statement to the Business Journal. "These are strategic actions to create better organizational efficiencies and are not mass reductions. When making these decisions, we always strive to handle them respectfully."
In addition to its own travel search website, Expedia's brands include Vrbo and Orbitz. The company formed a new corporate structure in 2021 with four departments: Expedia Services, Expedia Brands, Expedia Marketplace and Expedia for Business.
Expedia has a new 40-acre headquarters in Interbay, which it reopened last year. It had begun moving employees to the site from its old headquarters in downtown Bellevue before the Covid-19 pandemic temporarily put those plans on pause.
In February 2020, Expedia laid off 3,500 employees before the pandemic put a tighter squeeze on Expedia's business. The company in 2021 looked to declutter its operations through a rebrand, simplified customer experience and more defined business lines.
In its fourth quarter financial results, released in February, Expedia reported $2.7 billion in revenue, a 15% year-over-year increase. The company generated $11.7 billion in revenue for all of 2022, up from $8.6 billion in 2021.
"We were pleased that we were able to deliver our most profitable year in 2022, despite the friction from transforming our business model and technology platform," CEO Peter Kern said in a release announcing the financial results.
