Booking.com is about to go up in flames
Profit in 2018: +5 billion
Then they cut a deal with the Dutch government evading 1.8 billion in taxes
Balance in 2019: 8 billion debt
Why?
- They bought their own stock and handed out dividends and bonuses to the CEO's and investors
Now:
Bookings down 85%. They've managed to secure an 'expensive' emergency loan of 4 billion to scrape by for a few months.
So now they're asking our government to chip in to help finance the joint as they employ 19k workers in total.
(note this information was leaked to a Dutch newspaper from a video call with employees announcing that lay offs were imminent)
If you have something lined up at Booking.com cancel now. This thing is about to crash like the Hindenburg and you should try for a refund when there's still some money.
For the tech heads, the whole thing is built in fucking PERL