Senyek’s Weekly Special Situations

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Senyek’s Weekly Special Situations

Macro Research

Special Situations

Accounting and Tax Policy

Portfolio Strategy

June 18, 2026

TRIP Announces Sale of TheFork for $700M

• Last week, we hosted our second annual activist conference, featuring leading firms across the shareholder

activism ecosystem, including Arkhouse, Ananym, Ancora, Anson, Carronade, Garden, Elliott, Impactive,

Irenic, JANA, Starboard, Voss Capital, Olshan, Okapi Partners, Bank of America, Sidley Austin, and Sullivan

& Cromwell. Refer here for our key takeaways from the discussions.

• Tripadvisor (TRIP, $1.5B MC) agreed to sell TheFork, its European restaurant reservation business, to

American Express for $700M in cash, completing the strategic review initiated earlier this year following

the appointment of four Starboard-backed directors. The transaction values TheFork at ~3.0x LTM revenue

and ~25x LTM EBITDA and is expected to materially enhance Tripadvisor's financial flexibility, supporting

share repurchases, debt reduction, and investment in its higher-growth Experiences segment while further

simplifying the company's portfolio. Refer here for our most recent note on TRIP.

• Despite the sale announcement, we continue to see upside in TRIP shares. Based on our analysis, investors

are effectively valuing the Experiences business at just ~1.0x revenue while assigning little-to-no value to

the Hotels & Other segment ($764M and $153M of consensus FY26E revenue and EBITDA, respectively),

despite its substantial content library, global audience, proprietary data assets, and strategic role within

Tripadvisor's travel ecosystem. Pro forma for the transaction, TRIP is expected to hold approximately

$650M of net cash, providing significant capacity for additional share repurchases after reducing its share