The CEO of Mondee, a booking platform for travel agents, took a leave of absence as the company faces delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange.
The company issued a press release on Tuesday that said CEO Prasad Gundumogula would be taking leave effective November 25, while remaining as chairman of the company’s board. Mondee’s CFO, Jesus Portillo, was appointed as CEO and a member of the board.
The press release noted a letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it faces delisting because it has not yet filed a third-quarter financial report.
Mondee had originally scheduled its third-quarter earnings call for November 8. It rescheduled the call for November 12 and then again for November 18.
In the press release, the company said that the board “does not plan to submit a plan of compliance to Nasdaq to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s listing rules and does not plan to appeal Nasdaq’s subsequent delisting of its Common Stock from Nasdaq.”
Mondee’s History
Mondee went public in July 2022 via a SPAC merger, with a market capitalization of approximately $740 million. The stock debuted $11.05 per share, and was trading Tuesday below $1, down 63% year to date.
Mondee began as a rollup company but has spent the past couple of years working to combine its tech into a unified platform for travel agents.
In July 2023, Mondee released an upgraded version of its travel booking platform, which is integrated with generative AI and includes a chatbot called Abhi.
Mondee was founded in 2011 and acquired seven travel tech companies in the next year, focused solely on selling flights wholesale to travel agents. Mondee invested nearly $200 million between 2012 and 2015 to create a software platform for its segment of the market.
When the pandemic hit, the company started making more acquisitions. Mondee has completed 19 acquisitions to date, including five in 2023.
The company cut roughly 15 jobs from its marketing team late last year, including its chief marketing officer. Orestes Fintiklis, vice chairman for Mondee, told Skift that they were “being replaced by AI and some outsourced external services in India.”
