Liberty Interactive said it will spin off its TripAdvisor online travel site to shareholders on Aug. 21.
The spin was originally part of a larger plan to spin off its QVC home shopping network and its digital commerce properties into two separate tracking stocks – QVC Group and Liberty Digital Commerce. After those assets were spun off, Liberty Interactive had planned to spin TripAdvisor into a separate company – called TripAdvisor Holdings – as well. But although the QVC and Liberty Digital Commerce plans are on hold, the TripAdvisor deal is going forward.
Liberty Interactive said in late July that in light of its deal to sell the floral and gifting business of its Provide Commerce business to FTD – in turn acquiring a 35% interest in the combined company – it is “reevaluating the optimal structure and best alignment of the Liberty Digital Commerce group assets. As a result, the timing of the transition to the QVC Group has been delayed.”
In the TripAdvisor spin-off, Liberty will distribute one share of TripAdvisor Holdings Series A and Series B common stock for each share of Liberty Ventures common stock held. However, because NASDAQ has established Aug. 28 as the ex-dividend date of the distribution, and as a result of related "due bill" trading procedures, persons acquiring shares of Liberty Ventures common stock in the market through Aug. 27 will still receive shares of TripAdvisor Holdings common stock in the distribution. Liberty expects that the TripAdvisor Holdings Series A and Series B common stock will begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbols "LTRPA" and "LTRPB" beginning on Aug. 28. Following the Spin-off, TripAdvisor Holdings will hold Liberty's 22% economic and 57% voting interest in TripAdvisor, Inc., its BuySeasons business, corporate level cash and cash equivalents of $50 million and $400 million in debt.
