Expedia Group, the online travel giant based in Seattle, recently dismissed two of its top engineering leaders, CTO Rathi Murthy and Sreenivas Rachamadugu, senior vice president of core services product and engineering, due to a violation of company policy. Details about the nature of the violation were not disclosed, but the company confirmed that both executives are no longer employed at the company. Expedia is actively searching to fill these roles and remains confident in its technology, strategy, and employees. The company declined to comment further on the matter due to confidentiality reasons.
The unexpected departures of Murthy and Rachamadugu came shortly after Expedia hosted its annual partner conference in Las Vegas, where it announced several new tech-related initiatives, including a new AI assistant. Murthy, who joined the company in 2021 after holding executive roles at Verizon Media, Gap, American Express, eBay, and Yahoo, spoke at the conference and shared news about the new announcements. Rachamadugu, also a 2021 hire from Verizon Media, had over 15 years of experience working for various Verizon entities in engineering roles. GeekWire has reached out to both executives for comment but has not received a response.
Expedia Group’s new CEO, Ariane Gorin, assumed the role on Monday, replacing former CEO Peter Kern as part of a leadership transition announced in February. The company owns several well-known brands such as vrbo, Orbitz, Hotwire, Trivago, and Hotels.com, in addition to Expedia.com. Expedia has been integrating the technology platform across its brands and launched a unified travel loyalty program called One Key for Expedia, Hotels.com, and vrbo. Despite reporting $2.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter, up 8% year-over-year, Expedia’s shares fell after the earnings release due to slower-than-expected progress on a tech migration project.
In September, Expedia Group laid off tech workers as part of a workforce overhaul, and the company faced an outage earlier this month. The unexpected exits of the two engineering leaders add to the recent changes at Expedia, creating uncertainty about the company’s future direction in terms of technology and leadership. It remains to be seen how Expedia will fill the vacant CTO and senior vice president roles, and how the new executives will align with the company’s technology and strategic initiatives moving forward. Despite the challenges and changes, Expedia remains a major player in the online travel industry with a diverse portfolio of brands and a focus on innovation and customer experience.
