Mar. 10 at 8:07 PM
$TRIP Activist Starboard Value owns ~9% of Tripadvisor and is pushing for board changes. In proxy fights activists usually don’t need 50% of shares – ~35–40% of votes cast is often enough to win because many retail holders don’t vote. Large passive holders like BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street control 30%+ of the shares. These funds often follow proxy advisor recommendations and frequently support governance changes when companies have underperformed.
Potential strategic buyers could include
$BKNG ,
$EXPE $ABNB , all of which are investing heavily in activities.
Even using very conservative assumptions:
Viator: ~
$200M EBITDA × 15 = ~
$3B
TheFork: ~
$65M EBITDA × 10 = ~
$650M
Core Tripadvisor: ~
$250M EBITDA × 4 = ~
$1B
That’s a ~
$4.5–5B SOTP.
With ~118M shares outstanding, that implies roughly
$38–42 per share, vs ~
$10–12 today.
If Starboard wins the re-rating alone could be significant.