Colorado, USA — Billionaire media mogul Barry Diller is stepping down as chairman of TripAdvisor after selling his stake in the travel website to Liberty Interactive.

Liberty Interactive bought 4.8 million shares of TripAdvisor’s common stock from Diller and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation for a total of about US$300 million, making it the travel website’s new majority shareholder.

Shares of TripAdvisor spiked eight per cent to US$41.36 in nearly trading yesterday.

Diller, a former Fox and Paramount executive, said that he’s stepping down as chairman and selling his shares because he has other obligations to attend to.

Diller will remain a director at TripAdvisor, based in Newton, Massachussets. He also serves as chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Liberty spent US$62.50 per share. It now owns and controls 18.2 million shares of TripAdvisor’s common stock and 12.8 million shares of its Class B common stock. That’s about 22 per cent of the equity and 57 per cent of the total votes of all classes of TripAdvisor common stock.

Greg Maffei, Liberty’s president and CEO, called TripAdvisor a leader in the travel industry and said the increased investment in the company will be a strong addition to Liberty’s portfolio.

Liberty Interactive owns shopping websites like the QVC shopping channel and also invests in other companies.