TheFork Sale Is Now Definitive: Tripadvisor and American Express Sign $700 Million Purchase Agreement

The $700 million sale of TheFork, announced as a put option in June, is now a signed, definitive deal — leaving European antitrust clearance as the main hurdle between American Express and ownership of Europe's largest restaurant reservation platform by the end of 2026.

From put option to purchase agreement

Tripadvisor disclosed in an 8-K filed Monday that it executed the Equity Purchase Agreement with American Express Travel Related Services on August 2. The June 14 put option agreement gave Tripadvisor an irrevocable commitment from American Express to buy TheFork, but under French labor law the parties could not sign the definitive agreement until the mandatory information and consultation process with the French Works Council was complete. That process wrapped up on July 30; Tripadvisor exercised the put option on August 1 and both sides signed the following day.

The terms

American Express will pay $700 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments, funded from cash on hand. The agreement includes an interim operating covenant requiring Tripadvisor to run TheFork in the ordinary course until closing, and an exclusivity undertaking: Tripadvisor may not solicit or encourage alternative offers for the business before the deal closes.

Closing is conditioned on regulatory approvals, including antitrust clearances in applicable European jurisdictions, and is expected by the end of 2026. If the agreement is terminated because those regulatory hurdles are not cleared while all other conditions are satisfied, American Express owes Tripadvisor a $35 million reverse termination fee.

Why it matters

For Tripadvisor, the sale sheds a European restaurant-reservations business that sat outside its experiences-first strategy, and lands roughly a year into the board reshuffle agreed with activist investor Starboard Value. The $700 million in proceeds gives the company meaningful balance-sheet flexibility as it concentrates on Viator and the core Tripadvisor platform — expect questions about the use of proceeds on the Q2 earnings call this Thursday, August 6.

For American Express, TheFork extends a dining portfolio that already includes the reservation platform Resy, deepening its push into restaurant bookings on both sides of the Atlantic.

For the restaurants on TheFork across Europe, nothing changes contractually until closing, but the platform's next owner is a payments and premium-consumer company rather than a travel marketplace — a shift in strategic center of gravity worth watching as integration plans emerge in 2027.