Probe shows Huston had relationship with employee

The Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston resigned from the company Thursday after an inhouse investigation into a relationship he had with a fellow employee.

Huston’s departure is effective immediately, the company said, and former CEO and current Chairman Jeffery Boyd will serve as Interim CEO and President of The Priceline Group while the board looks for a successor.

Gillian Tans will become Booking.com CEO, another position Huston held; she has been Booking.com’s chief oper- ating officer since September 2011 and its president since January 2015.

Huston, who had served as Priceline Group CEO since January 2014, resigned after an internal investigation, conducted by independent board members, into a personal relationship that Huston had with another employee not under his direct supervision, the company said in a statement.

The investigation found that Huston had acted contrary to the company’s code of conduct and “had engaged in activities inconsistent with the Board’s expectations for executive conduct, which Mr. Huston acknowledged and for which he expressed regret,” the company said.

Huston’s resignation “was not related in any way to the company’s operational performance or financial condition,” company spokesman Leslie Cafferty said.

During his four-plus years at The Priceline Group, the company’s market value increased by 173% and operating profits increased from $1.40 billion in 2011 to $3.26 billion in 2015. Employees increased from about 5,000 to more than 15,000 at the end of 2015.

Boyd was company president and CEO from 2002 to 2013.

The Priceline Group has six travel-related companies including priceline.com, Kayak, Booking.com, agoda.com, Rentalcars.com, and OpenTable.

Priceline shares closed Thursday down 2.6% to $1,317.59.