Expedia Plans to Spin-off TripAdvisor

More than 40 million potential travelers across 29 countries visit the popular site TripAdvisor.com for tips on everything from car hire service to hotel stays in destinations around the world. The Expedia owned site was made popular due to its innovative format for travel advice posted by travelers, for travelers.

Expedia has announced that it will spin off its TripAdvisor brand. Expedia will still continue to include its other popular travel brands including Hotels.com, Hotwire, and several others, but by the third quarter of 2011 Expedia and TripAdvisor will be two separate publicly traded companies.

Travelers looking for information on their visit to destinations from Boston airport by car hire to Jakarta, Indonesia car rentals can still find the trip planning advice they are looking for in the same format on TripAdvisor. The split will only be apparent in a stock trading sense.

The distribution of stock of TripAdvisor to Expedia shareholders, where the holders of Expedia stock will receive a proportionate amount of TripAdvosor stock, will take place as a tax free transaction. Shares in Expedia have risen 15% to $25.89 in after-hours trading in New York.