Washington (AFP)

The Expedia group, which is struggling to adjust to the changing market and posted disastrous results, dismissed his CEO and CFO on Wednesday.

"Ultimately, the executives and the board of directors disagreed on the strategy," said Barry Diller, the billionaire who chairs the board of directors of Expedia, in a statement.

While Diller's case agreed with the need to reorganize the online tour operator and its many banners, he felt things could go faster than Mark Okerstrom, the dismissed CEO, suggested. Alan Pickerill, the CFO.

To launch a strong signal, Barry Diller announced at the same time that he would buy more shares of the company, "a sign of my confidence and my long-term commitment".

The US online tour operator, which generated $ 3.56 billion in revenue in the third quarter of its 2019 fiscal year, up 9% from the same quarter of 2018 but below expectations, announced in early November a downward revision its objectives for the year.

It forecasts a growth of its operating profit (Ebitda) between 5% and 9% over the year, against 15% previously.

The title of the company, which includes a series of sites for booking hotel rooms, air tickets or rental cars, gained 7.75% shortly after 15H20 GMT Wednesday.

Expedia includes Hotels.com, Hotwire, Travelocity, Cheaptickets, Egencia or CarRentals.com.

Barry Diller and Peter Kern, Vice Chairman of the Board, will take charge of day-to-day business management, while waiting for a more sustainable solution.

Strategy Manager Eric Hart will temporarily take care of the finances, and Ariane Gorin is promoted to take charge of the tour operator business.

The disappointing results of the third quarter are mainly due to the decline month after month in the number of consumers referred to the group's sites during their research on Google, which has changed its algorithms.

- Bypass Google -

The group must therefore diversify its marketing strategy instead of appearing almost free of charge at the top of the results of the dominant search engine. He has, for example, invested in influencers on social networks (Instagram and Facebook), online video ads, etc.

"We are happy with the feedback, but the real impact is much harder to measure and not as good as search engine optimization," says Okerstrom on the top of the page. last month.

The quarterly disappointment also came from Vrbo (formerly Home Away), its seasonal rental subsidiary Airbnb, and Trivago (internet hotel comparison).

Vrbo saw its revenues grow by 14% in one year, to 467 million dollars in the third quarter, less than expected by analysts. As for Trivago, its revenues fell by 6% to 279 million.

Finally Expedia continues to face rising costs and expenses, especially to fund its migration to the "cloud", cloud computing. The tour operator has also been affected by the new French digital tax.

© 2019 AFP