Key Points
- Tripadvisor’s CEO departs February 16 and its CFO resigned, with chief strategy and operations officer Kristen Dalton taking the interim CFO role on January 1, 2027.
- The exits follow a Starboard Value campaign that began with a 9% stake and four of 10 board seats, alongside Maffei’s exit, a 20% workforce cut, and the $700 million sale of TheFork to American Express.
- Tripadvisor has said no option is off the table for monetizing Viator and its non-core hotel metasearch business, and no CEO search process was announced.
Summary
Tripadvisor said Thursday that CEO Matt Goldberg and the board agreed to his departure, effective February 16, and that Chief Financial Officer Michael Noonan resigned to pursue another opportunity. The exits come 16 months after Starboard Value took a 9% stake in Tripadvisor and eight months after the activist investor won four of 10 board seats. That campaign has coincided with Chairman Greg Maffei’s exit, a 20% workforce cut, and the $700 million sale of TheFork to American Express. Tripadvisor did not announce a CEO search process, and the company has said no option is off the table for monetizing Viator, its experiences booking business, and its non-core hotel metasearch business. Kristen Dalton, chief strategy and operations officer, becomes interim CFO on January 1, 2027, after Noonan stays through December 31, 2026. The leadership vacancy arrives as the board entertains strategic alternatives, which leaves the structure of the company — and the ownership of Viator — unresolved.
Source: skift.com
