Online travel company Expedia’s rose on Friday following its plans to buy back up to $30 million shares in a tender offer priced between $18.50 to $22 each.

Published: 10 Dec 2006

Online travel company Expedia’s rose on Friday following its plans to buy back up to $30 million shares in a tender offer priced between $18.50 to $22 each.

The buyback represents up to 9.8 percent of outstanding shares, and 9.1 percent of outstanding Class B common stock. It becomes effective December 11, and will expire on Jan. 10, 2007. Shares of Expedia were trading up $2.03, or 11 percent, at $20.65 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.

Expedia’s announcement comes on the heels of comments from Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi last month that the fast-growing online travel industry is likely to attract an increasing amount of interest from private equity groups. Expedia, which was spun off from Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2005, purchased 20 million shares from May through July. The company issued $500 million in bonds to help put for the buyback.