Booking and Airbnb Have a $22 Billion Wad of Cash — How Will They Spend It?
Photo Credit: Major online travel agencies have plenty of cash at their disposal in 2023. Flickr.com / 401(K) 2012
Skift Take
The sure bet is that the major online travel agencies will use some cash to buy back shares in 2023 unless the economy tanks. Less sexy than acquisitions, but good for shareholders. Still, that leaves plenty of money for some possible headline-making deals.
Four major online travel companies had around $34 billion in cash and equivalents on the books at the end of 2022 — and that's considerably more liquid dinero than they had at the end of pre-Covid 2019.
Share repurchases, which boost shareholder value, are definitely high on the agenda in 2023 for most of these companies even though these transactions became a flashpoint because of all the employee firings they carried out leading up to and during the height of the pandemic. Investor Warren Buffet has a different view on share repurchases.
But beyond the share repurchases, Booking Holdings, Airbnb, Trip.com Group and Expedia Group, among other online travel companies, have substantial monies on the books for merger and acquisition activity, and other investments in growth and technology.
Booking Holdings had the largest rainy day fund at $12.2 billion at the end of last year, and added $1.4 billion to the stockpile this month by completing the sale o
