Tech Layoffs: Travel Tech Company Expedia Cuts Staff A Month After Executive Reshuffle

Travel tech company Expedia Group has reduced its workforce by around 100 employees a month after it made some changes to its executive leadership team.

"We are committed to delivering great travel experiences for our customers as demand remains high. As we align operations to our business transformation, this may result in the elimination of some roles. We remain confident in our strategy and value the contribution of all our employees. Our Springfield office remains open and we are committed to supporting and being part of the local community," an Expedia Group spokesperson told International Business Times in an emailed statement.

Product and tech teams were affected. Most of the departing employees, around 100 of them, were reportedly in the company's data and artificial intelligence units, Skift reported.

The exact number of remaining employees at Expedia is unknown, but its LinkedIn page shows the company has more than 10,001 workers and over 21,800 of them are on the recruitment platform.

Expedia eliminated some positions last month as well, reported GeekWire, citing an internal email. The company's technology team, including the traveler products unit under CTO Rathi Murthy's Product and Technology organization, was hit at the time.

In the email, the tech company also revealed an executive reshuffle, which included the departure of the then-vice president of research and advocacy, Eric Toyofuku. Expedia appointed Jonathan Finch, former global CTO for Amazon Insurance, as the head of its InsurTech business.

"These changes to our org will help us take the next steps to move quickly and stay tightly aligned while simplifying where we can," Tript Singh Lamba, Expedia Group's senior vice president, said in the internal note.

The executive reshuffle came two months after Expedia cut jobs in multiple departments, including B2B services, marketing, IT, support, recruiting and travel operations.

Expedia had been "simplifying and reprioritizing resources" to meet its business goals, resulting in "eliminating some roles and realigning our investments," the company said in July.

In March, the Seattle-based company eliminated an undisclosed number of staff as part of "strategic actions." GeekWire reported at the time that less than 100 workers were laid off.

More than 1,000 tech companies worldwide have implemented multiple cuts in 2023, including database company MariaDB that cut its workforce by 28% last week, videogame streaming platform Twitch, and software unicorn Talkdesk, which was once valued at $10 billion.

Tech giants like Meta and Alphabet have also conducted layoffs since the beginning of the year. More than 244,000 tech employees have lost their jobs so far in 2023, according to layoffs tracker layoffs.fyi.

(Updated at 9:57 p.m. on Oct. 18, 2023. This article has been updated to include a statement provided by an Expedia Group spokesperson.)