Expedia Group 2017 10-K Annual Report
EXPE · CIK 1324424 · Form 10-K · Fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 · Filed February 9, 2018
21 sections, 632K characters. Original on sec.gov · Markdown · JSON
Cover and table of contents
10-K 1 q42017-10k.htm 10-K
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
| þ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017
OR
| ¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission file number: 001-37429
EXPEDIA, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Delaware | 20-2705720 | |
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
333 108th Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
(Address of principal executive office) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:
(425) 679-7200
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class: | Name of each exchange on which registered: | |
| Common stock, $0.0001 par value | The Nasdaq Global Select Market | |
| Expedia, Inc. 2.500% Senior Notes due 2022 | New York Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No þ
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. þ
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
| Large accelerated filer | þ | Accelerated filer | ¨ | |||
| Non-accelerated filer | ¨ (Do not check if a smaller reporting company) | Smaller reporting company | ¨ | |||
| Emerging growth company | ¨ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No þ
As of June 30, 2017, the aggregate market value of the registrant’s common equity held by non-affiliates was approximately $18,137,071,000. For the purpose of the foregoing calculation only, all directors and executive officers of the registrant are assumed to be affiliates of the registrant.
| Class | Outstanding Shares at January 26, 2018 were approximately, | |
| Common stock, $0.0001 par value per share | 139,033,403 shares | |
| Class B common stock, $0.0001 par value per share | 12,799,999 shares |
Documents Incorporated by Reference
| Document | Parts Into Which Incorporated | |
| Portions of the definitive Proxy Statement for the 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (Proxy Statement) | Part III | |
Expedia, Inc.
Form 10-K
For the Year Ended December 31, 2017
Contents
Expedia, Inc.
Form 10-K
For the Year Ended December 31, 2017
Item 1. Business
We refer to Expedia, Inc. and its subsidiaries collectively as “Expedia,” the “Company,” “us,” “we” and “our” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect the views of our management regarding current expectations and projections about future events and are based on currently available information. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, those discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” as well as those discussed elsewhere in this report. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The use of words such as “anticipates,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans” and “believes,” among others, generally identify forward-looking statements; however, these words are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. We are not under any obligation and do not intend to publicly update or review any of these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, even if experience or future events make it clear that any expected results expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements will not be realized. Please carefully review and consider the various disclosures made in this report and in our other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business, prospects and results of operations.
Management Overview
General Description of our Business
Expedia, Inc. is an online travel company, empowering business and leisure travelers through technology with the tools and information they need to efficiently research, plan, book and experience travel. We seek to grow our business through a dynamic portfolio of travel brands, including our majority-owned subsidiaries that feature the world’s broadest supply portfolio — with more than 590,000 properties, including more than 150,000 of HomeAway's nearly 1.5 million online bookable vacation rental listings, in 200 countries and territories, over 550 airlines, packages, rental cars, cruises, insurance, as well as destination services and activities. Travel suppliers distribute and market products via our desktop and mobile offerings, as well as through alternative distribution channels, our private label business and our call centers in order to reach our extensive, global audience. In addition, our advertising and media businesses help other businesses, primarily travel providers, reach a large audience of travelers around the globe.
Our portfolio of brands includes:
| • | Expedia.com®, a leading full service online travel company with localized websites in 33 countries; |
| • | Hotels.com®, a leading global lodging expert operating 90 localized websites in 41 languages with its award winning Hotels.com® Rewards loyalty program; |
| • | Expedia® Affiliate Network ("EAN"), a global business-to-business ("B2B") brand that powers the hotel business of hundreds of leading airlines, travel agencies, loyalty and corporate travel companies plus several top consumer brands through its API and template solutions; |
| • | trivago®, a leading online hotel metasearch platform with websites in 55 countries worldwide; |
| • | HomeAway®, a global online marketplace for the vacation rental industry, which also includes the VRBO, VacationRentals.com and BedandBreakfast.com brands, among others; |
| • | Egencia®, a leading corporate travel management company; |
| • | Orbitz® and CheapTickets®, leading U.S. travel websites, as well as ebookers®, a full-service travel brand with websites in seven European countries; |
| • | Travelocity®, a leading online travel brand in the United States and Canada; |
| • | Hotwire®, a leading online travel website offering spontaneous travel through Hot Rate® deals; |
| • | Wotif Group, a leading portfolio of travel brands including Wotif.com®, Wotif.co.nz, lastminute.com.au®, lastminute.co.nz and travel.com.au®; |
| • | Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of Expedia, Inc. that builds creative media partnerships and enables brand advertisers to target a highly-qualified audience of travel consumers; |
| • | CarRentals.com™, a premier online car rental booking company with localized websites in four countries; |
| • | Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist; |
| • | Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of online and in-market concierge services, activities, experiences and ground transportation in over a thousand destinations worldwide; |
| • | Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, a provider of exceptional value and expert advice for travelers booking cruises and vacations through its network of over 250 retail travel agency franchises across North America; and |
| • | SilverRail Technologies, Inc., provider of a global rail retail and distribution platform connecting rail carriers and suppliers to both online and offline travel distributors. |
Equity Ownership and Voting Control
As of December 31, 2017, there were 138,939,100 shares of Expedia common stock and 12,799,999 shares of Expedia Class B common stock outstanding. Expedia stockholders are entitled to one vote for each share of common stock and ten votes for each share of Class B common stock outstanding. As of December 31, 2017, Liberty Expedia Holdings, Inc. (“Liberty Expedia Holdings”), through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, held approximately 8% of Expedia’s outstanding common stock and 100% of Expedia’s outstanding Class B common stock (or, assuming conversion of all shares of Class B common stock into shares of common stock, held 16% of Expedia’s outstanding common stock). Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive of Expedia holds an irrevocable proxy granted by Liberty Expedia Holdings, pursuant to which Mr. Diller has the right to vote the Expedia securities held by Liberty Expedia Holdings and its subsidiaries (the “Diller Proxy”), which proxy has been assigned by Mr. Diller to Liberty Expedia Holdings until the earlier of May 4, 2018 or the occurrence of certain termination events. As of December 31, 2017, as a result of their agreements and respective holdings in Expedia, Mr. Diller and Liberty Expedia Holdings may be deemed to share voting power over securities representing approximately 54% of the combined voting power of the outstanding Expedia capital stock.
By virtue of the voting power of an irrevocable proxy granted to Mr. Diller by John C. Malone and Leslie Malone over their shares in Liberty Expedia Holdings and the governance arrangements at Liberty Expedia Holdings, during the period the assignment of the Diller Proxy and the proxy granted him by the Malones are in effect, Mr. Diller is effectively able to control the outcome of nearly all matters submitted to a vote or for the consent of Expedia’s stockholders (other than with respect to the election by the Expedia common stockholders of 25% of the members of Expedia’s Board of Directors and certain matters as to which a separate class vote of the holders of Expedia common stock or Expedia preferred stock is required under Delaware law). Upon the termination or expiration of the assignment of the Diller Proxy (unless the Diller Proxy itself has terminated), Mr. Diller will continue to be able to control the outcome of such matters. In addition, pursuant to the Amended and Restated Governance Agreement, dated as of December 20, 2011, as amended, among Expedia, Liberty Expedia Holdings and Mr. Diller, each of Mr. Diller and Liberty Expedia Holdings generally has the right to consent to certain significant corporate actions in the event that Expedia or any of its subsidiaries incurs any new obligations for borrowed money within the definition of “total debt” set forth in the Governance Agreement for as long as Expedia’s ratio of total debt to EBITDA, as defined therein, equals or exceeds eight to one.
Market Opportunity & Business Strategy
Expedia is the world’s largest online travel company, yet our gross bookings represent only about 6% of total worldwide travel spending. Phocuswright estimates global travel spending at approximately $1.6 trillion in 2018, with an increasing share booked through online channels each year. We have built, and continue to build, a broad and deep supply portfolio which today includes more than 590,000 properties, including over 150,000 of HomeAway's nearly 1.5 million online bookable vacation rental listings, over 550 airlines and numerous car rental companies, cruise companies and other travel suppliers.
We believe the strength of our brand portfolio as well as our enhanced product offerings and new channel penetration drives customer demand, which when combined with our global scale and broad based supply, give us a unique advantage in addressing the ongoing migration of travel bookings from offline to online around the world. With our unmatched global audience of travelers, and our deep and broad selection of travel products, there is a rich interplay between supply and demand in our global marketplace that helps us provide value to both travelers planning trips and supply partners wanting to grow their business through a better understanding of travel retailing and consumer demand in addition to reaching consumers in markets
beyond their reach. Our primary growth drivers are global expansion, including of our supply portfolio, technology and product innovation, and new channel penetration and expansion.
Portfolio of Brands
Expedia operates a strong brand portfolio with global reach, targeting a broad range of travelers, travel suppliers and advertisers. We know that consumers typically visit multiple travel websites prior to booking travel, and having a multi-brand strategy increases the likelihood that those consumers will visit one or more of our websites. We also market to consumers through a variety of channels, including internet search and metasearch and social media websites, and having multiple brands appear in search results also increases the likelihood of attracting visitors. Our brands tailor their product offerings and websites to particular traveler demographics. For example, Hotwire finds deep discount deals for the budget-minded travel shopper while our Classic Vacations brand targets high-end, luxury travelers. Brand Expedia spans the widest swath of potential customers with multi-product travel options across a broad value spectrum, while our Hotels.com brand focuses specifically on a hotel only product offering.
Brand Expedia. A leading full-service online travel brand with localized websites in 33 countries offering a wide selection of travel products and services. Through an award-winning mobile app and Expedia-branded websites, travelers have access to the latest technology that delivers airline tickets, lodging, car rentals, rail, cruises, insurance and many things to do - such as airport transfers, activities and tours - from hundreds of thousands of suppliers, on both a standalone and package basis. Across the more than 20 years that Expedia has been helping people travel with confidence and ease, the company has learned that travelers benefit when Expedia continually improves and optimizes its offering, to ensure that travelers the world over can book the trip they need, in the manner they choose, at any point and save. That commitment has propelled Expedia to a leadership position within travel, and ensures that Expedia can continue to help millions of travelers experience the world.
Hotels.com. Hotels.com focuses entirely on marketing and distributing lodging accommodations. Hotels.com, with 90 localized websites worldwide in 41 languages worldwide and market leading mobile apps on all major platforms, offers travelers a broad selection of lodging options. Because of its single product offering, Hotels.com is often our first entry point into a region allowing us to evaluate the market opportunity prior to adding additional brands and product offerings. Hotels.com Rewards®, the loyalty program established in 2008, offers travelers the ability to earn one free night for every ten nights stayed.
Expedia Affiliate Network. EAN is the purely partner-focused arm of Expedia, Inc. EAN partners with businesses across a wide range of verticals including loyalty programs, airlines, travel agents and online retailers who remarket EAN’s accommodation rates and availabilities to their travelers. Partners can access EAN accommodations in the way that best suits their business, whether that is a fully customizable environment through EAN’s API or an ‘off-the-shelf,’ white-label or co-branded template solution offering.
trivago. trivago is our majority-owned hotel metasearch company, based in Dusseldorf, Germany. The online platform gives travelers access to price comparisons from more than 400 booking websites for over 1.8 million hotels in over 190 countries. Officially launched in 2005, trivago is a leading global brand in hotel search and can be accessed worldwide via 55 localized websites and apps in 33 languages. Subsequent to its initial public offering ("IPO") in December 2016, the company is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and trades under the symbol "TRVG."
HomeAway. In December 2015, we acquired HomeAway, which operates an online marketplace for the vacation rental industry. The HomeAway portfolio includes the vacation rental websites HomeAway, VRBO and VacationRentals.com in the United States; OwnersDirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com in France; Toprural.es in Spain; AlugueTemporada.com.br in Brazil; Stayz.com.au in Australia; and Bookabach.co.nz in New Zealand. HomeAway also operates BedandBreakfast.com, a comprehensive global website for finding bed-and-breakfast properties. In addition to its online marketplace, HomeAway also offers software solutions to property managers through its HomeAway Software and Glad to Have You products.
Egencia. Our full-service travel management company offers travel products and services to businesses and their corporate travelers. Egencia maintains a global presence in more than 65 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Egencia provides, among other things, a global technology platform coupled with local telephone assistance with expert travel consultants, unique supply targeted at business travelers, and consolidated reporting for its clients. Egencia charges its corporate clients account management fees, as well as transactional fees for various contacts made as part of the travel process. In addition, Egencia provides on-site agents to some corporate clients to provide in-house, seamless support. Egencia also offers consulting and meeting management services as well as advertising opportunities. We believe the corporate travel sector represents a significant opportunity for Expedia through Egencia’s compelling technology solution for businesses seeking to improve employees’ travel experiences and optimize travel costs by moving the focus of the corporate travel program to online and mobile services versus the traditional call center approach.
Orbitz, CheapTickets, ebookers. In September 2015, we acquired Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., including all of its brands and assets. Orbitz Worldwide was a travel portfolio including Orbitz, CheapTickets and ebookers.
Travelocity. After entering into an exclusive, long-term strategic marketing agreement with Travelocity during the third quarter of 2013, under which Brand Expedia powered the technology platform, supply and customer service for Travelocity’s existing websites in the United States and Canada, we announced in January 2015 that we acquired the Travelocity brand and associated assets from Sabre Corporation (“Sabre”) and terminated the strategic marketing and other related agreements. A pioneer in the online travel industry, Travelocity celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016. Travelocity and its famous Roaming Gnome encourage travelers in the United States and Canada to “Wander Wisely™”.
Hotwire. Hotwire offers a travel booking service that matches flexible, value-oriented travelers with suppliers who have excess seats, rooms and cars they offer at lower rates than retail. Hotwire’s Hot Rate® Hotels, Hot Rate® Cars and Hot Rate® Flights offer travelers an extra low price as the supplier name is not revealed until after the traveler books and pays. With Hotwire’s unique model, suppliers create value from excess availability without diluting their core, brand-loyal traveler base. Hotwire partners with leading hotel companies worldwide, brand-name domestic and international airlines, and major car rental companies in the United States.
Wotif Group. In November 2014, we completed the acquisition of Wotif Group, a leading Australian online travel company, comprised of the Wotif.com, lastminute.com.au and travel.com.au brands in Australia, and Wotif.co.nz and lastminute.co.nz in New Zealand. Wotif.com launched in 2000, and was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in June 2006 as Wotif.com Holdings Limited, under the ASX code “WTF,” prior to being acquired by Expedia.
CarRentals.com. CarRentals.com is an online car rental marketing and retail firm offering a diverse selection of car rentals direct to consumers. Following our July 2014 acquisition of Auto Escape Group, one of Europe’s leading online car rental reservation companies, the Auto Escape Group joined with the CarRentals.com brand. With CarRentals.com’s international expansion, it is able to provide our customers more choices across the globe and help our supply partners expand their marketing reach.
Classic Vacations. Classic Vacations offers individually tailored vacations primarily through a national network of third-party retail travel agents. Classic delivers a full line of premium vacation packages — air, hotels, car rentals, activities, cruises and private transportation — to create customized luxury vacations in Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico, Costa Rica, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Maldives, Dubai, Seychelles and Tahiti. Travel agents and travelers can preview our product offering through our website www.classicvacations.com.
Expedia Local Expert. Our Expedia Local Expert network offers online and in-market concierge services, activities, experiences, attractions and ground transportation. With access to a rich portfolio of over 25,000 tours and adventures, LX can be found on more than 60 Expedia, Inc. websites, and operates more than 100 concierge and activity desks in major resort destinations.
Expedia CruiseShipCenters. Expedia CruiseShipCenters is a leading seller of cruises and vacations. The franchise company has over 250 retail locations across North America, a team of over 4,500 professionally-trained vacation consultants and inventory of more than 200,000 staterooms available on the most popular ships and destinations to book online or in store.
SilverRail Technologies, Inc. SilverRail technology is built for rail, uniting the ecosystem of rail carriers and travel distributors around the world’s most comprehensive search and booking platform for rail content. The product suite spans the full customer experience: journey planning, inventory management, scheduling, pricing, booking, payment, ticketing, reporting and administration. SilverCore, SilverRail's technology platform, is the world’s first unified platform for global rail distribution, as it connects carriers and suppliers to both online and offline travel distributors.
Growth Strategy
Global Expansion. Our Expedia, Hotels.com, Egencia, and EAN brands operate both domestically and through international points of sale, including in Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America. In addition, ebookers offers multi-product online travel reservations in Europe and Wotif Group has a leading portfolio of travel brands, including Wotif.com, Wotif.co.nz, lastminute.com.au, lastminute.com.nz and travel.com.au, focused principally on the Australia and New Zealand markets. Egencia, our corporate travel business, operates in over 65 countries around the world and continues to expand. The HomeAway portfolio has 60 vacation rental websites all around the world. We own a majority share of trivago, a leading hotel metasearch company. Officially launched in 2005, trivago is one of the best known travel brands in Europe and North America. trivago continues to operate independently and grow revenue through global expansion, including aggressive expansion in new countries. In December 2016, trivago successfully completed its initial public offering and trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "TRVG." In addition, we have commercial agreements in place with Ctrip and eLong in China,
Traveloka in Southeast Asia, as well as Decolar.com, Inc. in Latin America, among many others. In conjunction with the commercial arrangements with Traveloka and Decolar, we have also made strategic investments of over $600 million combined in Traveloka in 2017 and Decolar in 2015. In 2017, approximately 38% of our worldwide gross bookings and 45% of worldwide revenue were through international points of sale compared to just 21% for both worldwide gross bookings and revenue in 2005. We have a goal of generating more than two-thirds of our revenue through businesses and points of sale outside of the United States.
In expanding our global reach, we leverage significant investments in technology, operations, brand building, supplier relationships and other initiatives that we have made since the launch of Expedia.com in 1996. Our scale of operations enhances the value of technology innovations we introduce on behalf of our travelers and suppliers. We believe that our size and scale afford the company the ability to negotiate competitive rates with our supply partners, provide breadth of choice and travel deals to our traveling customers through an expanding supply portfolio and create opportunities for new value added offers for our customers such as our loyalty programs. The size of Expedia’s worldwide traveler base makes our websites an increasingly appealing channel for travel suppliers to reach customers. In addition, the sheer size of our user base and search query volume allows us to test new technologies very quickly in order to determine which innovations are most likely to improve the travel research and booking process, and then roll those features out to our worldwide audience in order to drive improvements in conversion.
Product Innovation. Each of our leading brands was a pioneer in online travel and has been responsible for driving key innovations in the space for more than two decades. Each Expedia technology platform is operated by a dedicated technology team, which drives innovations that make researching and shopping for travel increasingly easier and helps customers find and book the best possible travel options. We have made key investments in technology, including significant development of our technical platforms that makes it possible for us to deliver innovations at a faster pace. Improvements in our global platforms for Hotels.com and Brand Expedia continue to enable us to increase the innovation cycle, thereby improving conversion and driving faster growth rates for those brands. In 2013, Expedia signed an agreement to power the technology, supply and customer service platforms for Travelocity-branded websites in the United States and Canada, enabling Expedia to leverage its investments in each of these key areas. During 2014, the Travelocity-branded websites were successfully migrated to the Expedia technology platform. In November 2014, Expedia completed the acquisition of Wotif Group and subsequently converted the Wotif.com website to the Expedia technology platform. In January 2015, we acquired the Travelocity brand and other associated assets from Sabre. The strategic marketing and other related agreements previously entered into were terminated. In September 2015, Expedia acquired Orbitz Worldwide, including all of its brands. The Orbitz, CheapTickets and ebookers websites were migrated to the Expedia technology platform in the first half of 2016, and Orbitz for Business customers were migrated to the Egencia technology platform by July 2016. In December 2015, Expedia acquired HomeAway, Inc., including all of its brands. Additionally, in June 2017, Expedia acquired a majority stake in SilverRail, a leading rail technology distributor. We intend to continue leveraging these investments when launching additional points of sale in new countries, introducing new website features, adding supplier products and services including new business model offerings, as well as proprietary and user-generated content for travelers.
Channel Expansion. Technological innovations and developments continue to create new opportunities for travel bookings. In the past few years, each of our brands made significant progress creating new mobile websites and mobile applications that are receiving strong reviews and solid download trends, and some of our brands now see more traffic via mobile devices than via traditional PCs. Mobile bookings continue to present an opportunity for incremental growth as they are often completed within one or two days of the travel or stay, which is a much shorter booking window than we historically experienced via more traditional online booking methods. Additionally, our brands implemented new technologies like voice-based search, chatbots and messaging apps as mobile-based options for travelers. In addition, we are seeing significant cross-device usage among our customers, who connect to our websites and apps across multiple devices and platforms throughout their travel planning process. We also believe mobile represents an efficient marketing channel given the opportunity for direct traffic acquisition, increase in share of wallet and in repeat customers, particularly through mobile applications. During 2017, approximately one in three Expedia, Inc. transactions were booked globally on a mobile device.
Business Models
We make travel products and services available both on a stand-alone and package basis, primarily through the following business models: the merchant model, the agency model and the advertising model. In addition, upon our acquisition of HomeAway in December 2015, we also earn revenue related to subscription-based vacation rental listing and other ancillary services provided to property owners and managers as well as from the traveler service fee that was rolled out in the United States and Europe in the first half of 2016.
Under the merchant model, we facilitate the booking of hotel rooms, airline seats, car rentals and destination services from our travel suppliers and we are the merchant of record for such bookings. The majority of our merchant transactions relate to hotel bookings. Under the agency model, we facilitate travel bookings and act as the agent in the transaction, passing
reservations booked by the traveler to the relevant travel provider. We receive commissions or ticketing fees from the travel supplier and/or traveler.
We continue to see closer integration of the agency hotel product with our core merchant product through our Expedia Traveler Preference (ETP) program by offering, for participating hotels, customers the choice of whether to pay Expedia in advance under our merchant contract (Expedia Collect) or pay at the hotel at the time of the stay (Hotel Collect). Growth in our ETP contracts has generally resulted in reduced negotiated economics to compensate for hotel supply partners absorbing expenses such as credit card fees and customer service costs, and as we continue to expand the breadth and depth of our global hotel offering, we have made adjustments to our economics in various geographies including changes based on local market conditions. Based on these dynamics, we expect our revenue per room night to remain under pressure in the future.
Through various of our Expedia-branded and other multi-product websites, travelers can dynamically assemble multiple component travel packages for a specified period at a lower price as compared to booking each component separately. Packages assembled by travelers through the packaging model on these websites primarily include a merchant hotel component and an air or car component. Travelers typically select packages based on the total package price, without being provided component pricing, and we have started to introduce a "shopping cart" style feature that incorporates an overall package discount after a traveler selects multiple products. The use of the merchant travel components in packages enables us to make certain travel products available at prices lower than those charged on an individual component basis by travel suppliers without impacting their other pricing models. In addition, we also offer third-party pre-assembled package offerings, primarily through our international points of sale, further broadening our scope of products and services to travelers. We expect the package product to continue to be marketed primarily using the merchant model.
Under the advertising model, we offer travel and non-travel advertisers access to a potential source of incremental traffic and transactions through our various media and advertising offerings on trivago and our transaction-based websites.
With our acquisition of HomeAway and all of its brands in December 2015, we expanded into the fast growing $100 billion alternative accommodations market. HomeAway is a leader in this market and represents an attractive growth opportunity for Expedia. HomeAway has been undergoing a transition from a listings-based classified advertising model to an online transactional model that optimizes for both travelers and homeowner and property manager partners, with a goal of increasing monetization and driving growth through investments in marketing as well as in product and technology. In addition, HomeAway rolled out a traveler service fee in the United States and Europe during the first half of 2016, consistent with market practice. The fee is expected to continue to contribute to HomeAway’s revenue growth and help fund marketing investments, programs to better protect travelers and future growth initiatives. Furthermore, HomeAway moved to a single subscription option globally in July 2016.
Relationships with Travel Partners
Overview. We make travel products and services available from a variety of hotel companies, large and small commercial airlines, car rental companies, cruise lines, destination service providers, HomeAway property owners and managers and other travel partners. We seek to build and maintain long-term, strategic relationships with travel suppliers and global distribution system (“GDS”) partners. An important component of the success of our business depends on our ability to maintain our existing, as well as build new, relationships with travel suppliers and GDS partners.
Travel Suppliers. We strive to deliver value to our travel supply partners through a wide range of innovative, targeted merchandising and promotional strategies designed to generate consumer demand and increase their revenue, while simultaneously reducing their overall marketing transaction and customer service costs. Our strategic account managers and local hotel market managers work directly with travel suppliers to optimize the exposure of their travel products and brands through our points of sale, including participation in need-based, seasonal and event-driven promotions and experimentation within the new channels we are building.
We developed proprietary technology to assist hotel suppliers in managing, pricing and marketing their supply. Our “direct connect” technology allows hotels to upload information about available products and services and rates directly from their central reservation systems and to automatically confirm hotel reservations made by our travelers. Proprietary marketing tools assist hotels in tailoring demand to their requirements and our revenue management product provides pricing insight based on Expedia data and analytics. Our suite of white label website offerings power hotel, package and meeting space booking on suppliers' own websites.
In addition, HomeAway’s vacation rental listing services includes a set of tools for property owners or managers, which enables them to manage an availability calendar, reservations, inquiries and the content of the listing, as well as provide various other services for property owners or managers to manage reservations or drive incremental sales volume.
Distribution Partners. GDSs, also referred to as computer reservation services, provide a centralized, comprehensive repository of travel suppliers’ ‘content’ — such as availability and pricing of seats on various airline point-to-point flights, or ‘segments.’ The GDSs act as intermediaries between the travel suppliers and travel agencies, allowing agents to reserve and book flights, rooms or other travel products. Our relationships with GDSs primarily relate to our air business. We use Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport as our GDS segment providers in order to ensure the widest possible supply of content for our travelers.
Marketing and Promotions
Our marketing programs are intended to build and maintain the value of our various brands, drive traffic and ultimately bookings through our various brands and businesses, optimize ongoing traveler acquisition costs and strategically position our brands in relation to one another. Our long-term success and profitability depends on our continued ability to maintain and increase the overall number of traveler transactions flowing through our brand and shared global platforms in a cost-effective manner, as well as our ability to attract repeat customers to our websites.
Our marketing channels primarily include online advertising, including search engine marketing and optimization as well as metasearch, social media websites, offline advertising, loyalty programs, mobile apps and direct and/or personalized traveler communications on our websites as well as through direct e-mail communication with our travelers. Our marketing programs and initiatives include promotional offers such as coupons as well as seasonal or periodic special offers from our travel suppliers based on our supplier relationships. Our traveler loyalty programs include Hotels.com Rewards on Hotels.com global websites and Expedia®+ rewards on over 30 Brand Expedia points of sale, as well as Orbitz Rewards on Orbitz.com. The cost of these loyalty programs is recorded as a reduction of revenue in our consolidated financial statements.
We also make use of affiliate marketing. The Brand Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Travelocity, Orbitz, CheapTickets, HomeAway, Wotif and lastminute.com.au branded websites receive bookings from consumers who have clicked-through to the respective websites through links posted on affiliate partner websites. Affiliate partners can also make travel products and services available on their own websites through a Brand Expedia, Hotels.com or HomeAway co-branded offering or a private label website. Our EAN business provides our affiliates with technology and access to a wide range of products and services. We manage agreements with thousands of third-party affiliate partners, including a number of leading travel companies, pursuant to which we pay a commission for bookings originated from their websites.
Operations and Technology
We operate several technology platforms that support our brands. The Brand Expedia technology platform supports our full-service and multi-product brands, including Brand Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, CheapTickets, ebookers and Expedia Local Expert, as well as certain parts of the Hotwire brand. The Hotels.com technology platform supports our hotel-only offering, including Hotels.com and EAN. In addition, we operate Egencia, our corporate travel platform; HomeAway, our vacation rentals platform; and trivago, the metasearch platform.
All of our transaction-based brands share and benefit from our eCommerce platform infrastructure, including customer support, data centers and transaction processing capabilities.
We provide 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week traveler sales and support by telephone or via e-mail. For purposes of operational flexibility, we use a combination of outsourced and in-house call centers. Our call centers are located throughout the world, including outsourced operations in the Philippines, El Salvador, Egypt and India. We invested significantly in our call center technologies, with the goal of improving customer experience and increasing the efficiency of our call center agents, and have plans to continue reaping the benefits of these investments going forward.
Our systems infrastructure and web and database servers are housed in various locations, mainly in the United States, which have 24-hour monitoring and engineering support. These data centers have their own generators and multiple back-up systems. Significant amounts of our owned computer hardware for operating the websites are located at these facilities. Additionally, we are in the midst of a multi-year project to migrate products, data storage and functionality and significantly increase our utilization of public cloud computing services, such as Amazon Web Services. For some critical systems, we have both production and disaster-recovery facilities. Our technology systems are subject to certain risks, which are described below in Part I, Item 1A — Risk Factors.
Competition
Our brands compete in rapidly evolving and intensely competitive markets. We believe international markets represent especially large opportunities for Expedia and those of our competitors that wish to expand their brands and businesses abroad to achieve global scale. We also believe that Expedia is one of only a few companies that are focused on building a truly global, travel marketplace.
Our competition, which is strong and increasing, includes online and offline travel companies that target leisure and corporate travelers, including travel agencies, tour operators, travel supplier direct websites and their call centers, consolidators and wholesalers of travel products and services, large online portals and search websites, certain travel metasearch websites, mobile travel applications, social media websites, as well as traditional consumer eCommerce and group buying websites. We face these competitors in local, regional, national and/or international markets. In some cases, competitors are offering more favorable terms and improved interfaces to suppliers and travelers which make competition increasingly difficult. We also face competition for customer traffic on internet search engines and metasearch websites, which impacts our customer acquisition and marketing costs.
We believe that maintaining and enhancing our brands is a critical component of our effort to compete. We differentiate our brands from our competitors primarily based on the multiple channels we use to generate demand, quality and breadth of travel products, channel features and usability, price or promotional offers, traveler service and quality of travel planning content and advice as well as offline brand efforts. The emphasis on one or more of these factors varies, depending on the brand or business and the related target demographic. Our brands face increasing competition from travel supplier direct websites. In some cases, supplier direct channels offer advantages to travelers, such as long standing loyalty programs, complimentary services such as Wi-Fi, and better pricing. Our websites feature travel products and services from numerous travel suppliers, and allow travelers to combine products and services from multiple providers in one transaction. We face competition from airlines, hotels, alternative accommodation websites, rental car companies, cruise operators and other travel service providers, whether working individually or collectively, some of which are suppliers to our websites. Our business is generally sensitive to changes in the competitive landscape, including the emergence of new competitors or business models, and supplier consolidation.
Intellectual Property Rights
Our intellectual property rights, including our patents, trademarks, copyright, domain names, trade dress, proprietary technology, and trade secrets, are an important component of our business. For example, we rely heavily upon our intellectual property and proprietary information in our content, brands, domain names and website URLs, software code, proprietary technology, ratings indexes, informational databases, images, graphics and other components that make up our services. We have acquired some of our intellectual property rights and proprietary information through acquisitions, as well as licenses and content agreements with third parties.
We protect our intellectual property and proprietary information through registration and by relying on our terms of use, confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions, as well as international, national, state and common law rights. In addition, we enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with employees and contractors, and license and confidentiality agreements with other third parties. Despite these precautions, it may be possible for a third party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our trade secrets or our intellectual property and proprietary information without authorization which, if discovered, might require the uncertainty of legal action to correct. In addition, there can be no assurance that others will not independently and lawfully develop substantially similar properties.
We maintain our trademark portfolio by filing trademark applications with national trademark offices, maintaining appropriate registrations, securing contractual trademark rights when appropriate, and relying on common law trademark rights when appropriate. We also register copyrights and domain names as we deem appropriate. We protect our trademarks, copyrights and domain names with an enforcement program and use of intellectual property licenses. Trademark and intellectual property protection may not be available or may not be sought, sufficient or effective in every jurisdiction where we operate. Contractual disputes or limitations may affect the use of trademarks and domain names governed by private contract.
We have considered, and will continue to consider, the appropriateness of filing for patents to protect inventions, as circumstances may warrant. However, patents protect only specific inventions and there can be no assurance that others may not create new products or methods that achieve similar results without infringing upon patents owned by us.
In connection with our copyrightable content, we post and institute procedures under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and similar Host Privilege statutes worldwide to gain immunity from copyright liability for photographs, text and other content uploaded by users. However, differences between statutes, limitations on immunity, and moderation efforts may affect our ability to claim immunity.
From time to time, we may be subject to legal proceedings and claims in the ordinary course of our business, including claims of alleged infringement or infringement by us of the trademarks, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties. In addition, litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights claimed by others. Any such litigation, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could materially harm our business.
Regulation
We must comply with laws and regulations relating to the travel industry, the vacation rental industry and the provision of travel services, including registration in various states as “sellers of travel” and compliance with certain disclosure requirements and participation in state restitution funds In addition, our businesses are subject to regulation by the U.S. Department of Transportation and must comply with various rules and regulations governing the provision of air transportation, including those relating to advertising and accessibility.
As we continue to expand the reach of our brands into the European, Asia-Pacific and other international markets, we are increasingly subject to laws and regulations applicable to travel agents or tour operators in those markets, including, in some countries, pricing display requirements, licensing and registration requirements, mandatory bonding and travel indemnity fund contributions, industry specific value-added tax regimes and laws regulating the provision of travel packages. For example, the European Economic Community Council Directive on Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours imposes various obligations upon marketers of travel packages, such as disclosure obligations to consumers and liability to consumers for improper performance of the package, including supplier failure.
We are also subject to consumer protection, privacy and consumer data, labor, economic and trade sanction programs, tax, and anti-trust and competition laws and regulations around the world that are not specific to the travel industry. For example, the European Union adopted a new regulation that will become effective in May 2018, called the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). The GDPR will require companies, including ours, to meet new requirements regarding the handling of personal data. In addition, certain laws and regulations have not historically been applied in the context of online travel companies, so there can be uncertainty regarding how these requirements relate to our business.
Financial Information about Segments and Geographic Areas
We generate our revenue through a diverse customer base, and there is no reliance on a single customer or small group of customers; no customer represented 10% or more of our total revenue in the periods presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We have four reportable segments: Core Online Travel Agencies ("Core OTA"), trivago, HomeAway, upon its acquisition in December 2015, and Egencia. In addition, eLong was a reportable segment through its disposal on May 22, 2015. The segment and geographic information required herein is contained in NOTE 19 — Segment Information, in the notes to our consolidated financial statements.
Additional Information
Company Website and Public Filings. We maintain a corporate website at www.expediainc.com. Except as explicitly noted, the information on our website, as well as the websites of our various brands and businesses, is not incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, or in any other filings with, or in any information furnished or submitted to, the SEC.
We make available, free of charge through our website, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports, filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after they have been electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC.
Code of Ethics. We have adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for Directors and Senior Financial Officers (the “Code of Ethics”) that applies to our Chief Executive officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller, and is a “code of ethics” as defined by applicable rules of the SEC. The Code of Ethics is posted on our corporate website at www.expediainc.com/Investors under the “Corporate Governance” tab. If we make any substantive amendments to the Code of Ethics or grant any waiver, including any implicit waiver, from a provision of the Code of Ethics to our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, or Chief Accounting Officer and Controller, we will disclose the nature of the amendment or waiver on that website or in a report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC.
Employees
As of December 31, 2017, we employed approximately 22,615 full-time and part-time employees. We believe we have good relationships with our employees, including relationships with employees represented by works councils or other similar organizations.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
You should carefully consider each of the following risks and uncertainties associated with our company and the ownership of our securities. If any of the following risks occur, our business and/or financial performance could be materially adversely affected. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business and/or financial performance.
We operate in an increasingly competitive global environment.
The market for the services we offer is increasingly and intensely competitive. We compete with both established and emerging online and traditional sellers of travel-related services, including:
| • | Online and traditional travel agencies, wholesalers and tour operators; |
| • | Travel suppliers, including hotels, airlines and car rental companies; |
| • | Search engines and large online portal websites; |
| • | Travel metasearch websites; |
| • | Corporate travel management service providers; |
| • | Mobile platform travel applications; |
| • | Social media websites; |
| • | eCommerce and group buying websites; |
| • | Alternative accommodation websites; and |
| • | Other participants in the travel industry. |
Online and traditional travel agencies: We face increasing competition from other online travel agencies (“OTAs”) in many regions, such as The Priceline Group and its subsidiaries Booking.com and Agoda.com, as well as regional competitors such as Ctrip, which in some cases may have more favorable offerings for travelers or suppliers, including pricing and supply breadth. In addition, the global OTA segment continues to consolidate, with certain competitors merging or forming strategic partnerships. We also compete with traditional travel agencies (operating both offline and online), wholesalers and tour operators for both travelers and the acquisition and retention of supply.
Travel suppliers: Travel suppliers may offer products and services on more favorable terms to consumers who transact directly with them. Many of these competitors, such as airlines, hotels and rental car companies, have been steadily focusing on increasing online demand on their own websites and mobile applications in lieu of third-party distributors such as the various Expedia sites. For instance, several large hotel chains have combined to establish a single online hotel search platform with links directly to their own websites and mobile applications and some low-cost airlines, which are having increasing success in the marketplace, distribute their online supply exclusively through their own websites. In recent years, certain hotel chains have launched advertising campaigns expressly designed to drive consumer traffic directly to their websites. Suppliers who sell on their own websites, in some instances, offer advantages such as favorable rates, increased or exclusive product availability, complimentary Wi-Fi, and their own bonus miles or loyalty points, or in the case of airlines promote hotel supply at their websites, which could make their offerings more attractive to consumers than ours.
Search engines and large online portal websites: We also face increasing competition from search engines, including Google. To the extent that leading search engines that have a significant presence in our key markets disintermediate online travel agencies or travel content providers by offering comprehensive travel planning, shopping or booking capabilities, or increasingly refer those leads directly to suppliers or other favored partners, increase the cost of traffic directed to our websites, or offer the ability to transact on their own website, there could be a material adverse impact on our business and financial performance. In recent years search engines have increased their focus on acquiring or launching flight and hotel search products that provide increasingly comprehensive travel planning content and direct booking capabilities, comparable to OTAs. For example, Google has entered various aspects of the online travel market, including by establishing a flight metasearch product (“Google Flights”) and a hotel metasearch product (“Hotel Ads”) that are growing rapidly, as well as its “Book on Google” reservation functionality. In addition, these search engines continue to expand their voice and artificial intelligence
capabilities. To the extent these actions have a negative effect on our search traffic or the cost of acquiring such traffic, our business and financial performance could be adversely affected.
In addition, our websites, or websites in which we hold a significant ownership position, including trivago-branded websites, compete for advertising revenue with these search engines, as well as with large internet portal sites that offer advertising opportunities for travel-related companies. Several of these competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and larger client bases than we do. We expect to face additional competition as other established and emerging companies enter the online advertising market. Competition could result in higher traffic acquisition costs, reduced margins on our advertising services, loss of market share, reduced customer traffic to our websites and reduced advertising by travel companies on our websites.
Travel metasearch websites: Travel metasearch websites, including Kayak.com (a subsidiary of Priceline), trivago (a majority-owned subsidiary of Expedia), TripAdvisor, Skyscanner and Qunar (both are subsidiaries of Ctrip), aggregate travel search results for a specific itinerary across supplier, travel agent and other websites. In addition, some metasearch websites have added or intend to add various forms of direct or assisted booking functionality to their sites in direct competition with certain of our brands. To the extent metasearch websites limit our participation within their search results, or consumers utilize a metasearch website for travel services and bookings instead of ours, our traffic-generating arrangements could be affected in a negative manner, or we may be required to increase our marketing costs to maintain market share, either of which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, as a result of our majority ownership interest in trivago, we also now compete more directly with other metasearch engines and content aggregators for advertising revenue. To the extent that trivago’s ability to aggregate travel search results for a specific itinerary across supplier, travel agent and other websites is hampered, whether due to its affiliation with us or otherwise, or if OTA advertisers or suppliers choose to limit their participation in trivago’s metasearch marketplace, trivago’s business and therefore our results of operations could be adversely affected and the value of our investment in trivago could be negatively impacted.
Corporate travel management service providers: Egencia, our full-service corporate travel management company, competes with online and traditional corporate travel providers, including Carlson Wagonlit and American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), as well as vendors of corporate travel and expense management software and services, including Concur. Some of these competitors may have more financial resources, greater name recognition, well-established client bases, differentiated business models or a broader global presence, which may make it difficult for us to retain or attract new corporate travel clients.
Mobile and other platform travel applications: The demand for and functionality of smartphones, tablet computers and home assistants continue to grow and improve significantly. If we are unable to
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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 2. Properties
We lease approximately 3.9 million square feet of office space worldwide, pursuant to leases with expiration dates through March 2031.
We lease approximately 565,000 square feet for our headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, pursuant to leases with expiration dates through December 2019. We also lease approximately 1.4 million square feet of office space for our domestic operations in various other cities and locations pursuant to leases with expiration dates through March 2031.
We also lease approximately 2.0 million square feet of office space for our international operations in various cities and locations pursuant to leases with expiration dates through June 2030.
In addition to our leased space, on April 30, 2015, we acquired our future corporate headquarters, consisting of multiple office and lab buildings located in Seattle, Washington. The build out of the headquarters is significant as we convert lab facilities into office space. We expect employees to begin to move into the new campus at the end of 2019.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
In the ordinary course of business, Expedia and its subsidiaries are parties to legal proceedings and claims involving property, personal injury, contract, alleged infringement of third-party intellectual property rights and other claims. The amounts that may be recovered in such matters may be subject to insurance coverage.
Rules of the SEC require the description of material pending legal proceedings, other than ordinary, routine litigation incident to the registrant’s business, and advise that proceedings ordinarily need not be described if they primarily involve damages claims for amounts (exclusive of interest and costs) not individually exceeding 10% of the current assets of the registrant and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis. In the judgment of management, none of the pending litigation matters that the Company and its subsidiaries are defending, including those described below, involves or is likely to involve amounts
of that magnitude. The litigation matters described below involve issues or claims that may be of particular interest to our stockholders, regardless of whether any of these matters may be material to our financial position or results of operations based upon the standard set forth in the SEC’s rules.
Litigation Relating to Occupancy and Other Taxes
A number of jurisdictions in the United States have filed lawsuits against online travel companies, including Expedia companies, such as Hotels.com, Expedia, Hotwire, Orbitz and HomeAway, claiming that such travel companies have failed to collect and/or pay taxes (e.g., occupancy taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, etc.), as well as related claims such as unjust enrichment, restitution, interest, and penalties. In addition, we may file complaints contesting tax assessments made by states, counties and municipalities seeking to obligate online travel companies, including certain Expedia companies, to collect and remit certain taxes, either retroactively or prospectively, or both. Moreover, certain jurisdictions may require us to pay tax assessments prior to contesting any such assessments. This requirement is commonly referred to as “pay-to-play.” Payment of these amounts is not an admission that we believe we are subject to such taxes and, even when such payments are made, we continue to defend our position vigorously.
Actions Filed by Individual States, Cities and Counties
City of Los Angeles Litigation. On December 30, 2004, the city of Los Angeles filed a purported class action in California state court against a number of online travel companies, including Hotels.com, Expedia, Hotwire and Orbitz. City of Los Angeles, California, on Behalf of Itself and All Others Similarly Situated v. Hotels.com, L.P. et al., No. BC326693 (Superior Court, Los Angeles County). The complaint alleged that the defendants failed to pay hotel occupancy taxes, and sought certification of a statewide class of all California cities and counties that have enacted uniform transient occupancy-tax ordinances effective on or after December 30, 1990. The complaint alleged violation of those ordinances, violation of Section 17200 of the California Business and Professions Code, and common-law conversion; it also sought a declaratory judgment that the defendants are subject to hotel occupancy taxes on the hotel rate charged to consumers and imposition of a constructive trust, disgorgement, restitution, interest and penalties. In the administrative process preceding the litigation, the City of Los Angeles had issued assessments in September 2009 totaling $29.5 million against certain Expedia companies (Expedia, Hotels.com and Hotwire). On April 18, 2013, the trial court held that the online travel companies are not liable to remit hotel occupancy taxes to the city of Los Angeles. On January 8, 2014, the court entered final judgment in favor of the online travel companies. On March 21, 2014, the city of Los Angeles filed a notice of appeal. The California Court of Appeals stayed this case pending review and decision by the California Supreme Court in the San Diego litigation. The stay is now lifted and the appeal is proceeding.
City of San Antonio, Texas Litigation. On May 8, 2006, the city of San Antonio filed a putative statewide class action in federal court against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, and Orbitz. See City of San Antonio, et al. v. Hotels.com, L.P., et al., SA06CA0381 (United States District Court, Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division). The complaint alleged that the defendants failed to pay hotel accommodations taxes as required by municipal ordinance. The complaint asserted claims for violation of that ordinance, common-law conversion, and declaratory judgment, and sought damages in an unspecified amount, restitution and disgorgement. On October 30, 2009, a jury verdict was entered finding that defendant online travel companies "control hotels," and awarding approximately $15 million for historical damages against the Expedia companies. The jury also found that defendants were not liable for conversion or punitive damages. On April 4, 2013, the court entered a final judgment holding the online travel companies liable for hotel occupancy taxes to counties and cities in the statewide class action. The online travel companies filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, for a new trial. The cities filed a motion to amend the judgment regarding calculation of penalties. On February 20, 2014, the court denied the online travel companies' motion. On January 22, 2015, the court granted in part and denied in part the cities' motion regarding penalties. On April 11, 2016, the court entered an amended judgment including approximately $68 million in tax, interest and penalty amounts for the Expedia companies, including Orbitz. The online travel companies filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 6, 2016. Plaintiffs filed a notice of cross appeal on May 12, 2016. The Fifth Circuit heard argument on the parties’ cross appeals on September 26, 2017. On November 29, 2017, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion reversing the district court and rendering judgment for the defendant online travel companies, finding that the amounts charged by the defendants for their services are not subject to the hotel accommodations taxes at issue. The plaintiff municipalities filed petitions for rehearing and en banc review, which were denied by the Fifth Circuit Court on February 6, 2018. On July 25, 2016, plaintiffs filed a request for attorneys’ fees and costs in the trial court; the defendant online travel companies opposed that request. On February 16, 2017, the court referred the matter to a magistrate judge for review and recommendation. On April 10, 2017, the defendant online travel companies filed a motion to stay further proceedings on plaintiffs’ fee request pending resolution of their substantive appeal to the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On April 17, 2017, the magistrate judge issued a report and recommendation as to attorneys' fees. On April 20, 2017, the district court stayed further
proceedings on plaintiff's fee petition pending resolution of the parties' appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On December 8, 2017, the district court dismissed plaintiff’s fee petition as moot in light of the Fifth Circuit’s decision.
Nassau County, New York Litigation. On October 24, 2006, the county of Nassau, New York filed a putative statewide class action in federal court against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, and Orbitz. Nassau County, New York, et al. v. Hotels.com, L.P., et al., (United States District Court, Eastern District of New York). The complaint alleged that the defendants failed to pay hotel accommodation taxes as required by local ordinances to certain New York cities, counties and local governments in New York. The complaint asserted claims for violations of those ordinances, as well as claims for conversion, unjust enrichment, and imposition of a constructive trust, and sought unspecified damages. The county subsequently dismissed its case on May 13, 2011 on the basis that the court lacked jurisdiction and refiled in state court. County of Nassau v. Expedia, Inc., et al., (In the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Nassau). The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the refiled state court case. On June 13, 2012, the court denied the online travel companies' motion to dismiss. On November 27, 2012, plaintiff filed a motion for class certification. On April 11, 2013, the court granted plaintiff s motion for class certification. The online travel company defendants appealed both the court's certification order and its prior order denying their motion to dismiss. On September 10, 2014, the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division reversed the trial court's order granting the plaintiff s motion for class certification. In a separate opinion, the Appellate Division also affirmed in part and reversed in part the trial court's denial of the online travel companies' motion to dismiss. On September 11, 2015, the parties filed cross motions for summary judgment. On September 25, 2015, Erie County, Orange County, Rensselaer County and Saratoga County, New York (the “first group of intervenors”) filed a motion seeking leave to intervene as plaintiffs in the lawsuit; the defendant online travel companies opposed the motion. On February 23, 2016, the court granted the counties' motion to intervene. The defendants filed their notice of appeal from the February 23, 2016 Order on April 26, 2016. On July 20, 2016, the court entered a stipulated order permitting the addition of another group of taxing jurisdictions - the Counties of Chautauqua, Oswego, Steuben, Westchester, and the City of Saratoga Springs (the “second group of intervenors”) - as Intervenor-Plaintiffs in the lawsuit and agreeing that these Intervenor-Plaintiffs will be bound by the disposition of the defendants' appeal from the Supreme Court's February 23, 2016 Order granting intervention. On December 2, 2016, the court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment and denied plaintiff Nassau County’s motion for summary judgment. The court concluded that the enabling statute for plaintiff’s tax ordinance did not impose a tax on defendants’ fees. The court further invited defendants to file a successive motion for summary judgment against the first group of intervenors on similar grounds. The court also vacated its prior order granting the second group of intervenors permission to intervene. On December 23, 2016, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment against the first group of intervenors. On March 15, 2017, the parties filed a stipulation and proposed order which would permit the second group of intervenors to re-enter the case and be subject to the pending motion for summary judgment against the first group of intervenors. On March 22, 2017, the court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment against the first and second group of intervenors. Nassau County and the Intervenor-Plaintiffs have appealed the court’s dismissal of their claims. That appeal remains pending.
City and County of San Francisco, California Litigation. On May 13, 2008, San Francisco instituted an audit of a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire and Orbitz, for hotel occupancy taxes claimed to be due from 2000 through the third quarter of 2007. During an administrative hearing process, the hearing examiner upheld the tax assessments. Thereafter, the online travel companies proceeded to the California superior court to vacate the decision of the hearing examiner and for a declaratory judgment that the online travel companies are not subject to San Francisco's hotel occupancy tax. Expedia, Inc. v. City and County of San Francisco, ET. al.; Hotels.com, Inc. v. City and County of San Francisco, ET. al.; Hotwire, Inc. v. City and County of San Francisco, ET. al., (Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco). San Francisco also filed a lawsuit against hotels in the city for the recovery of hotel occupancy taxes on the online travel companies' services. The hotel suit was consolidated with the case relating to the online travel companies. On June 19, 2009, the court granted the city's demurrer on the "pay first" issue relating to pay-to-play provisions. Expedia’s and Hotwire's appeal of the "pay first" decision was denied, as was Hotels.com's appeal. The total assessed amount paid by the Expedia companies was approximately $48 million. On February 6, 2013, the court held that the online travel companies are not liable to remit hotel occupancy taxes to San Francisco. On October 10, 2013, the court entered judgment in favor of the online travel companies. On December 9, 2013, San Francisco filed a notice of appeal. San Francisco also has issued additional tax assessments against the Expedia companies in the amount of $22 million for the time period from the fourth quarter of 2007 through the fourth quarter of 2011. These subsequent tax assessments are pending before the court, and on August 24, 2013, the court held that these subsequent assessments against the online travel companies as well as the lawsuit against the hotels should be stayed pending the appeal of San Francisco's first assessment. On January 21, 2014, the city notified the Expedia companies that despite proceeding in court on its assessments that it now intended to proceed against the Expedia companies in the administrative process to recover the assessment amount of $22 million. On May 14, 2014, the court heard oral argument on the Expedia companies' contest of the prepayment requirement for the additional assessments and held that the Expedia companies were required to prepay in order to litigate the legality of the assessments. On May 26, 2014, the Expedia companies paid $25.5 million under protest in order to contest the additional
assessments. In addition, Orbitz in total has paid $4.6 million to the city of San Francisco in prepayment of taxes to contest these assessments issued against it by the city. The California Court of Appeals stayed this case pending review and decision by the California Supreme Court in the San Diego litigation. The stay is now lifted and the appeal is proceeding.
Pine Bluff, Arkansas Litigation. On September 25, 2009, Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission and Jefferson County filed a class action against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Inc., Hotels.com, Hotwire and Orbitz. Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission, Jefferson County, Arkansas, and others similarly situated v. Hotels.com LP, et al. CV-2009- 946-5 (In the Circuit Court of Jefferson, Arkansas). The complaint alleged that defendants have failed to collect and/or pay taxes under hotel tax occupancy ordinances. The court denied defendants' motion to dismiss. Plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification, which the court granted on February 19, 2013. Defendants appealed the class certification decision, and on October 10, 2013 the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed that decision. On October 10, 2017, plaintiffs filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability. Defendants opposed that motion and filed a cross motion for partial summary judgment on November 22, 2017. On January 31, 2018, the court heard argument on the parties’ cross motions. On February 1, 2018, the trial court granted plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the issue of tax liability.
Town of Breckenridge, Colorado Litigation. On July 25, 2011, the Town of Breckenridge, Colorado brought suit on behalf of itself and other home rule municipalities against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire and Orbitz. Town of Breckenridge, Colorado v. Colorado Travel Company, LLC, Case No. 2011CV420 (District Court, Summit County, Colorado). The complaint included claims for declaratory judgment, violations of municipal ordinances, conversion, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment. The online travel companies filed a motion to dismiss. On June 8, 2012, the court granted in part and denied in part the online travel companies' motion to dismiss. On March 26, 2014, the court denied the plaintiffs' motion for class certification. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment and, on April 20, 2016, the court granted the online travel companies' motion for summary judgment, and denied the town's motion for summary judgment, holding that the Breckenridge Accommodations Tax does not apply to the online travel companies or the amounts they charge for their services. On June 8, 2016, the Town of Breckenridge filed a notice of appeal from the court's order on the parties' cross motions for summary judgment, as well as the court's prior rulings denying class certification and dismissing claims for state sales tax. On June 8, 2016, the Town of Breckenridge filed a notice of appeal from the trial court’s order on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment, as well as the trial court’s prior rulings denying class certification and dismissing claims for state sales tax. On September 8, 2016, the Colorado Court of Appeals dismissed the Town of Breckenridge’s appeal without prejudice for lack of a final appealable judgment on the ground that the Town had failed to demonstrate that the trial court had disposed of claims against two non-online travel company defendants. On September 22, 2016, the trial court granted the Town’s motion to dismiss one of the non-online travel company defendants and entered final judgment for all other remaining defendants. On November 7, 2016, the Town again filed notice of appeal. The Colorado Court of Appeals heard argument on the Town’s appeal on January 11, 2018 and on January 25, 2018 affirmed the trial court’s decision on all grounds, finding that the defendant online travel companies are not liable for accommodations taxes, that the Town’s sales tax claims were properly dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and that class certification was properly denied.
State of Mississippi Litigation. On December 29, 2011, the State of Mississippi brought suit against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire and Orbitz. State of Mississippi v. Priceline.com, et al., Case No. G-2011-002211 (Chancery Court, Hinds County, Mississippi). The complaint included claims for declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, violations of state sales tax statute and local ordinances, violation of Consumer Protection Act, conversion, unjust enrichment, constructive trust, money had and received and joint venture liability. On March 23, 2012, the defendant online travel companies filed a motion to dismiss. On September 20, 2012, the court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss.
Village of Bedford Park, Illinois Litigation. On April 5, 2013, a group of Illinois municipalities (City of Warrenville, Village of Bedford Park, City of Oakbrook Terrace, Village of Oak Lawn, Village of Orland Hills, City of Rockford and Village of Willowbrook) filed a putative class action in Illinois federal court against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire and Orbitz. City of Warrenville, et al. v. Priceline.com, Incorporated, et al., Case No. 1:13-cv-02586 (USDC, D. Ill., Eastern Division). The complaint sought certification of a class of all Illinois municipalities (broken into four alleged subclasses) that have enacted and collect a tax on the percentage of the retail rate that each consumer occupant pays for lodging, including service costs, denominated in any manner, including but not limited to occupancy tax, a hotel or motel room tax, a use tax, a privilege tax, a hotel or motel tax, a licensing tax, an accommodations tax, a rental receipts tax, a hotel operator's tax, a hotel operator's occupation tax, or a room rental, lease or letting tax. The complaint alleged claims for relief for declaratory judgment, violations of municipal ordinances, conversion, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment, imposition of a constructive trust, damages and punitive damages. On July 8, 2013, the plaintiff municipalities voluntarily dismissed their federal court lawsuit and filed a similar putative class action lawsuit in
Illinois state court. City of Bedford Park, et al. v. Expedia, Inc., et al. (Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division). The online travel companies removed the case to federal district court. On September 13, 2013, the online travel companies filed a motion to dismiss plaintiffs' common law claims. On March 13, 2014, the court granted the defendant online travel companies' motion and dismissed the plaintiffs' common law claims. On October 3, 2014, plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification, which the court denied without prejudice on January 6, 2015. Plaintiffs filed a renewed motion for class certification, which the court denied on September 28, 2015. The case proceeded only on the claims brought by the individual plaintiff municipalities named in the suit. On February 1, 2016, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment. On February 29, 2016, the defendant online travel companies filed a cross motion for summary judgment. The Expedia and Orbitz defendants reached a settlement with one of the plaintiff municipalities -the city of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois and on March 4, 2016, those parties filed a stipulation for voluntary dismissal of the city's claims. On June 20, 2016, the court granted the defendant online travel companies' motion for summary judgment as to 12 of the 13 plaintiff municipalities, finding no liability for occupancy taxes in those jurisdictions. The court granted the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, and denied the defendants' motion, as to the Village of Lombard. On October 19, 2016, the trial court entered a stipulated judgment on plaintiff Village of Lombard’s claims. The parties filed cross notices of appeal from the trial court’s summary judgment ruling in November 2016. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard argument on the cross appeals on October 23, 2017. On November 22, 2017, the Seventh Circuit denied the plaintiffs’ appeal, affirming the district court’s decision finding no liability for occupancy taxes in 12 of the 13 plaintiff municipalities, and granted the defendants’ appeal, reversing the district court’s finding of liability for occupancy taxes in the Village of Lombard.
State of New Hampshire Litigation. On October 16, 2013, the State of New Hampshire filed a lawsuit against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz and Egencia. State of New Hampshire v. Priceline.com, et al., Case No. 217-2013-CV-00613 (Merrimack Superior Court, New Hampshire). The complaint alleged claims for declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, violation of state meals and room tax law, violation of Consumer Protection Act, breach of fiduciary duty, accounting, conversion, unjust enrichment, assumpsit for money had and received, civil conspiracy, and constructive trust. On December 23, 2013, the defendant online travel companies filed a motion to dismiss, which the court granted in part and denied in part on June 30, 2014. On February 19, 2015, the plaintiff filed a motion to amend its complaint. On May 5, 2015, the court issued an order denying the motion to amend except as to "housekeeping changes." On May 27, 2015, plaintiff filed its amended complaint, which the Expedia defendants answered on June 26, 2015. On December 21, 2015, the parties filed cross motions for summary judgment. The court heard oral argument on the parties' motions on May 5, 2016. At the request of the Court, the Parties subsequently embarked on a process designed to explore the possibility of agreement upon a Statement of Facts and, if there can be an agreement, to prepare an Agreed Statement of Facts for submission to the Court on or before August 1, 2016. The court indicated that if the parties were unable to agree, it would deny all pending motions and set the case for trial. The parties were unable to agree on an Agreed Statement of Facts for submission to the Court by August 1, 2016. On August 1, 2016, the defendants filed a motion for leave of court to submit a renewed motion for summary judgment as to the plaintiffs’ consumer protection act claims. On October 3, 2016, the court denied the motion. The case went to trial from May 1 to May 12, 2017. On October 18, 2017, the trial court issued its post-trial order finding that the defendant online travel companies are not subject to the New Hampshire meals and room tax and that their business practices do not violate the state consumer protection act. On November 17, 2017, the plaintiff filed a notice of appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. That appeal remains pending.
Arizona Cities Litigation. Tax assessments were issued in 2013 by 12 Arizona cities (Apache Junction, Chandler, Flagstaff, Glendale, Mesa, Nogales, Peoria, Phoenix, Prescott, Scottsdale, Tempe and Tucson) against a group of online travel companies including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire and Orbitz. The OTCs petitioned for redetermination of the assessments. On May 28, 2014, the Municipal Tax Hearing Officer granted the online travel companies' protests to the assessments and ordered the cities to abate the assessments. On August 26, 2014, the cities appealed the Hearing Officer's decision by filing complaints and notices of appeal against the online travel companies in Arizona Tax Court. (See, City of Phoenix, et al. v. Expedia, Inc., Case No. TX2014-00471). On August 31, 2015, the cities filed a motion for summary judgment. On September 30, 2015, the online travel companies filed a response to the cities' motion and their own cross motion for summary judgment. On April 20, 2016, the Arizona Tax Court granted the plaintiff cities' motion for summary judgment in part and denied it in part; the court also denied the defendant online travel companies' motion for summary judgment. On June 6, 2016, the Arizona Tax Court entered judgment. On June 21, 2016, the plaintiff cities filed a motion to amend or alter that judgment on the grounds that the court's ruling that the online travel companies do not owe past taxes based upon prior administrative guidance should be reversed. The defendant online travel companies opposed the motion. On October 17, 2016, the court denied the motion. The plaintiffs and the defendants each filed a notice of appeal. Argument on the appeals is scheduled for February 15, 2018.
Village of Matteson, Illinois Litigation. On December 3, 2015, the Villages of Matteson, Bloomington and Oakbrook, Illinois filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com,
Hotwire, Egencia and Orbitz. Village of Matteson, et al. v. Expedia, Inc. (WA), et al., Case No. 2015CHI7598 (Cook County Chancery Court, State of Illinois). The complaint alleged claims for declaratory judgment, violation of municipal tax ordinances, fraud, conversion, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment, imposition of a constructive trust, breach of fiduciary duty requiring an accounting, damages and punitive damages. On April 4, 2016, the defendant online travel companies filed a motion to dismiss plaintiffs' common law claims. On July 29, 2016, the court granted the motion and dismissed plaintiffs’ common law claims.
State of Louisiana/City of New Orleans Litigation. On August 24, 2016, the State of Louisiana Department of Revenue and the City of New Orleans filed a lawsuit in Louisiana state court against a number of online travel companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz and Egencia. See Kimberly L. Robinson, Secretary of the Department of Revenue for the State of Louisiana and City of New Orleans Department of Finance v. Priceline.com, Inc. et al., Case No. 650894 (19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana). The complaint alleged claims for declaratory judgment, violation of state and city tax laws, unfair trade practices, breach of fiduciary duty, and imposition of a constructive trust. On November 30, 2016, the defendant online travel companies filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings seeking dismissal of plaintiffs’ common law and unfair trade practices claims. On March 6, 2017, the court denied the motion. On April 5, 2017, Defendants filed an application for supervisory writ to the Louisiana Court of Appeals seeking to reverse the trial court’s denial of the motion. On July 24, 2017, the Louisiana Court of Appeals denied the application. On August 10, 2017, defendants filed an application for supervisory writ to the Louisiana Supreme Court seeking to reverse the trial court’s denial of the motion. On November 6, 2017, the court denied the writ application.
In addition, HomeAway is a party in the following proceedings:
Palm Beach, Florida Litigation. On January 13, 2014, Palm Beach County, Florida filed a lawsuit in Florida state court against HomeAway and other vacation rental listing businesses seeking tourist development taxes imposed by Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County v. AirBnb, Inc., et al., Case No. 502014CA000428XXXXMBAO (15th Judicial Circuit Court, Palm Beach County, Florida). On July 1, 2014, plaintiff filed an amended complaint. On September 16, 2014, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. On December 12, 2014, the court denied the motion. On December 22, 2015, plaintiff filed its second amended complaint. On July 20, 2015, the defendants filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings. On November 5, 2015, the court denied defendants' motion. The court has set the matter on the trial calendar that begins on May 28, 2018.
Portland, Oregon Litigation. On October 21, 2015, the City of Portland, Oregon filed a lawsuit in federal district court against HomeAway. City of Portland, Oregon v. Homeaway.com, Inc., et al., Case No. 3:15-cv-01984-MO (D. Or.). The complaint alleges claims for declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, taxes and fines for alleged violations of the Portland Transient Lodgings Tax ordinance, including alleged failures to register, collect and remit tax and display certain information in advertisements and websites. On November 13, 2015, HomeAway filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. The court heard oral argument on the motion on May 17, 2016. The court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiffs' claims, some with prejudice and some without. On July 11, 2016, the City of Portland filed an amended complaint. HomeAway responded by filing a motion to dismiss the amended complaint on August 5, 2016. The City of Portland opposed the motion. The court heard argument on the motion on December 16, 2016 and, on March 10, 2017, granted the motion in part and denied the motion in part. The City of Portland amended its ordinance on short-term rentals, which took effect on January 20, 2017. On January 19, 2017, HomeAway filed two lawsuits challenging the amended ordinance. The first was filed in federal district court and sought a declaration that certain of the amendments violated the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the dormant commerce clause, and the Stored Communications Act. HomeAway.com, Inc. v. City of Portland, Case No. 3:17-cv-00091 (U.S. District Court, District of Oregon). HomeAway also sought to enjoin enforcement of the amended ordinance. In response to the lawsuit, the city agreed to stay enforcement of the ordinance against HomeAway pending the court’s decision on HomeAway’s preliminary injunction motion. The hearing on that motion took place on March 20, 2017. The court issued a ruling from the bench granting the motion in part, denying it in part based on the city’s representation as to how it would enforce a portion of its ordinance, and ordering supplemental briefing on an additional issue involving the scope of an audit provision. On May 11, 2017, the court ruled that the audit provision could not be used to obtain information protected by the Stored Communications Act. The court has set the case for trial on April 24, 2018. The second lawsuit was filed in state court and sought an injunction and declaration that the amended ordinance improperly seeks to impose transient lodging taxes on HomeAway even though the imposition of such taxes is not authorized by the City Charter or the state transient lodging statute applicable to localities. HomeAway.com, Inc. v. City of Portland, MCCC No. 17cv01894 (Multnomah County Circuit Court). The state court has set the case for trial on April 16, 2018.
Clackamas County, Oregon Litigation. On September 7, 2017, Clackamas County, Oregon filed a lawsuit in state circuit court against HomeAway, Expedia, Inc. and other vacation rental listing companies. Clackamas County v. Homeaway.com, Inc., et al., Case No. 17-CV-38408 (Clackamas County Circuit Court). The complaint alleges the defendants failed to register
with, and remit taxes to, the county as persons “engaging…in business as an…intermediary of transient lodging” as allegedly required by a new ordinance that became effective June 15, 2017. The complaint purports to seek enforcement of the ordinance and injunctive relief. On October 12, 2017, the defendants removed the case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. On November 16, 2017, HomeAway, Expedia and Airbnb filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. On December 7, 2017, the County filed a motion to strike defendants’ challenge to the legality of the amended tax ordinance. These motions were assigned to a magistrate judge, who heard argument on the motions on January 3, 2018. The parties await issuance of the magistrate’s report and recommendation to the district court judge.
Notices of Audit or Tax Assessments
At various times, the Company has also received notices of audit, or tax assessments from over 15 states or counties and over 80 municipalities concerning its possible obligations with respect to state and local occupancy or other taxes.
Actions Filed by Expedia
Hawaii Tax Court Litigation (General Excise Tax). During 2013, the Expedia companies were required to “pay-to-play” and paid a total of $171 million in advance of litigation relating to general excise taxes for merchant model hotel reservations in the State of Hawaii. In September 2015, following a ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court, the State of Hawaii refunded the Expedia companies $132 million of the original “pay-to-play” amount. Orbitz also received a similar refund of $22 million from the State of Hawaii in September 2015. The amount paid, net of refunds, by the Expedia companies and Orbitz to the State of Hawaii in satisfaction of past general excise taxes on their services for merchant model hotel reservations was $44 million. The parties reached a settlement relating to Orbitz merchant model hotel tax liabilities, and on October 5, 2016, the Expedia companies paid the State of Hawaii for the tax years 2012 through 2015. The Expedia companies and Orbitz have now resolved all assessments by the State of Hawaii for merchant model hotel taxes through 2015.
The Department of Taxation also issued final assessments for general excise taxes against the Expedia companies, including Orbitz, dated December 23, 2015 for the time period 2000 to 2014 for hotel and car rental revenue for “agency model” transactions. Those assessments are currently under review in the Hawaii tax courts. The Hawaii tax court has scheduled trial on the agency hotel and car rental matters for February 4, 2019. On December 29, 2017, the defendant online travel companies filed a motion for partial summary judgment. The Department of Taxation has asked the tax court to stay further proceedings in the agency hotel and car rental case pending a decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court in the merchant model car rental case addressed below. The defendants have opposed the request. On February 5, 2018, the tax court granted the motion to stay.
Final assessments by the Hawaii Department of Taxation for general exercise taxes against the Expedia companies, including Orbitz, relating to merchant car rental transactions during the years 2000 to 2014 are also under review in the Hawaii tax courts. With respect to merchant model car rental transactions at issue for the tax years 2000 through 2013, the Hawaii tax court held on August 5, 2016 that general excise tax is due on the online travel companies’ services to facilitate car rentals. The court further ruled that for merchant model car rentals in Hawaii, the online travel companies are required to pay general excise tax on the total amount paid by consumers, with no credit for tax amounts already remitted by car rental companies to the State of Hawaii for tax years 2000 through 2013, thus resulting in a double tax on the amount paid by consumers to car rental companies for the rental of the vehicle. The court, however, ruled that when car rentals are paid for as part of a vacation package, tax is only due once on the amount paid by consumers to the car rental company for the rental of the vehicle. In addition, the court ruled that the online travel companies are required to pay interest and certain penalties on the amounts due. On April 25, 2017, the court entered a stipulated order and final judgment. On May 15, 2017, the Expedia companies paid under protest the full amount claimed due, or approximately $16.7 million, as a condition of appeal. The parties filed notices of cross-appeal from the order. The appeals have been transferred to the Hawaii Supreme Court and oral argument on the merchant car appeals is scheduled for April 5, 2018. The Hawaii tax court’s decision did not resolve “merchant model” car rental transactions for the tax year 2014, which also remain under review.
Non-Tax Litigation and Other Legal Proceedings
Putative Class Action Litigation
Buckeye Tree Lodge Lawsuit. On August 17, 2016, a putative class action suit was filed in federal district court in the Northern District of California against Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Expedia Australia Investments Pty Ltd. and Trivago relating to alleged false advertising. Buckeye Tree Lodge and Sequoia Village Inn, LLC v. Expedia, Inc., et al, Case No. 3:16-cv-04721-SK (U.S. District Court, Norther District of California). Plaintiff has not effected service of process as to trivago. The putative class is comprised of hotels and other providers of overnight accommodations whose names appeared on the Expedia defendants’ websites with whom the Expedia defendants did not have a booking agreement during the relevant time period. The complaint asserts claims against the Expedia defendants for violations of the Lanham Act, the California Business & Professions Code, intentional and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage, unjust enrichment and
restitution. On January 12, 2017, the court granted the Expedia defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claims for intentional and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage without prejudice. On March 7, 2017, a related putative class action was filed in the same court, 2020 O Street Corporation, Inc. v. Expedia, Inc., et al, Case No. 3:17-cv-01186-JSC, asserting similar Lanham Act claims, and claims for Unfair Competition, and Unjust Enrichment and Restitution. The court determined that the cases were related and assigned them to the same judge. Expedia accepted service of the Complaint on March 13, 2017. On May 5, 2017, Plaintiffs filed a Consolidated Class Action Complaint.
Israeli Putative Class Action Lawsuit (Silis). In or around September 2016, a putative class action lawsuit was filed in the District Court in Tel Aviv, Israel against Hotels.com. Silis v. Hotels.com, (Case No. 23241-09-16CA). The plaintiff generally alleges that Hotels.com violated Israeli consumer protection laws in various ways by failing to calculate and display VAT charges in pricing displays shown to Israeli consumers. On March 15, 2017, Hotels.com filed an application with the District Court challenging service. On June 22, 2017, the court registrar rejected Hotels.com’s application. Hotels.com appealed this decision. On November 7, 2017, the court denied the appeal. Hotels.com has sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Israel. The Supreme Court has ordered the parties to send the pleadings to the General Attorney of the Israeli Government and has asked the General Attorney to provide a written opinion with respect to the subjects addressed in Hotels.com’s appeal.
Israeli Putative Class Action Lawsuit (Ze’ev). In or around January 2018, a putative class action lawsuit was filed in the District Court in Lod, Israel against a number of online travel companies including Expedia, Inc. and Hotels.com. Ze’ev v. Expedia, Inc., et al (Case No. CA 6771-01-18). The plaintiff generally alleges that the defendants violated Israeli consumer laws by limiting hotel price competition. The Expedia defendants have not yet been served.
Cases against HomeAway.com, Inc. On March 15, 2016, a putative class action suit was filed in federal district court in Texas against HomeAway.com, Inc. related to its recent implementation of a service fee. Arnold v. HomeAway.com, Inc., Case No. l-16-cv-00374 (U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas). The putative class is comprised of homeowners that list their properties on HomeAway’s websites for rent. The complaint asserts claims against HomeAway for breach of contract, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, fraud, fraudulent concealment, and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and the California Unfair Competition Law. On April 15, 2016, another putative class action suit was filed against HomeAway, also related to the implementation of a service fee. Seim v. HomeAway, Inc., Case No. 1:16- cv-00479 (U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas). The putative class is comprised of homeowners that list their properties on HomeAway’s websites. The complaint asserts claims against HomeAway for breach of contract, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, fraud, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act, and other state consumer protection statutes. HomeAway moved to compel arbitration and dismissal in both of these cases on July 11, 2016; a hearing on both motions to compel took place on August 24, 2016. On January 10, 2017, the court denied HomeAway’s motion in Arnold. On January 31, 2017, HomeAway filed a notice of appeal. On March 10, 2017, HomeAway filed a motion to dismiss the complaint in Arnold. On August 1, 2017, the Magistrate Judge issued his report and recommendation to the court, recommending the court grant HomeAway's motion to dismiss the complaint in part, and deny the motion in part. On September 25, 2017, the court adopted the magistrate’s report in Arnold. On October 13, 2017, plaintiffs filed their third amended complaint. On November 10, 2017, HomeAway filed a motion to dismiss the third amended complaint and/or to strike the class allegations. On January 10, 2018, the district court referred the motion to the Magistrate Judge. On January 18, 2017, the court granted HomeAway’s motion in Seim and entered final judgment dismissing the case. On February 2, 2017, Seim filed a notice of appeal. On December 7, 2017, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard argument in the Arnold and Seim matters on the parties’ appeals from the trial court’s decisions on HomeAway’s motions to compel arbitration. The parties await a ruling.
On June 23, 2016, another putative class action was filed against HomeAway.com, Inc., also related to the implementation of a service fee. Brickman v. HomeAway, Inc., Case No. 1:16-cv-00733 (U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas). This putative class is comprised of homeowners from nine different states that list their properties on HomeAway's websites. The complaint asserts claims against HomeAway for breach of contract, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, fraud, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, restitution, and violations of various state consumer protection statutes. On October 26, Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, dismissing certain named Plaintiffs and adding two new Plaintiffs. On December 6, 2016, HomeAway filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint, which plaintiffs opposed. On August 1, 2017, the Magistrate Judge issued his report and recommendation to the court, recommending the court grant HomeAway's motion to dismiss the complaint in part, and deny the motion in part. On August 25, 2017, the district court adopted the Magistrate Judge’s report and recommendation and ordered plaintiffs to file an amended complaint by September 8, 2017. On September 7, 2017, plaintiffs filed their third amended complaint. On November 10, 2017, HomeAway filed a motion to dismiss the third amended complaint and/or to strike the class allegations. On January 10, 2018, the district court referred the motion to the Magistrate Judge. On November 7, 2016, another putative class action was filed against HomeAway.com, Inc., also related to the implementation of a service fee. May v. Expedia, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-01211 (U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas). The complaint asserts claims against HomeAway for breach of contract, fraud, fraudulent concealment, and violation of the Oregon Unlawful Trade Practices Act. It also names Expedia as a defendant. HomeAway and
Expedia moved to compel arbitration and dismissal in this case on May 1, 2017. On July 6, 2017, the court held a hearing on the motion. On July 10, 2017, the court entered an order directing the parties to advise it when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issues decisions in the Arnold and Seim appeals.
Other Legal Proceedings
Santa Monica, California Litigation. On September 2, 2016, HomeAway filed a lawsuit against the City of Santa Monica requesting a declaration that certain sections of a Santa Monica ordinance violate the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the Storage Communications Act, and the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. HomeAway.com, Inc. v. City of Santa Monica, Case Nos. 2:16-cv-6645-ODW-AFM; 2:16-cv-06641-ODW-AFM (U.S. District Court, Central District of California). On the same day, HomeAway filed a motion for preliminary injunction, seeking to enjoin enforcement of the ordinance. In response, the city requested a stay of proceedings to prepare and consider amendments to the Ordinance to address the legal challenges raised by Plaintiffs’ actions. The court granted the city's motion to stay the case until the effective date of any new Santa Monica ordinance. The city passed an amended ordinance that took effect February 23, 2017, although enforcement of that ordinance has been stayed by agreement of the parties. HomeAway filed an amended complaint and preliminary injunction motion on December 13, 2017. The motion is scheduled for hearing on February 26, 2018.
Chicago, Illinois Litigation. On May 22, 2017, HomeAway filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago requesting a declaration that certain sections of the city’s ordinance violate the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the Storage Communications Act, and the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. HomeAway.com, Inc. v. City of Chicago, Case No. 1:17-cv-03784 (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois). Enforcement of the ordinance has been stayed by agreement of the parties.
Ryanair Lawsuit (Ireland). On or around February 15, 2017, Ryanair D.A.C. filed a lawsuit against Expedia, Inc. in the Irish High Court. The case involves claims over alleged bookings of Ryanair flight reservations with data that has been scraped from Ryanair’s website. Ryanair D.A.C. v. Expedia, Inc., (Case No. 2017/11 IA).
Ryanair Lawsuit (United States). On November 29, 2017, Ryanair D.A.C. filed a lawsuit against Expedia, Inc. in federal court in Washington alleging violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Ryanair DAC v. Expedia, Inc., Case No. 2:17-cv-01789 (U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington). The case involves claims relating to alleged bookings of Ryanair flight reservations with data that has been scraped from Ryanair’s website. On February 5, 2018, Expedia filed a motion to dismiss.
IBM Lawsuit. On December 29, 2017, IBM filed a complaint against Expedia, Inc. (DE), Expedia, Inc. (WA), Travelscape, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz, and HomeAway in federal court in Delaware. International Business Machines Corporation v. Expedia, Inc. et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-01875-LPS-CJB (U.S. District Court, District of Delaware). The Complaint alleges that the defendants infringe four patents held by IBM.
Derivative Litigation
In Re Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. Consolidated Stockholder Litigation, Case No. 10711-VCP (Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware). On April 8, 2015, an amended class action complaint was brought against Expedia, Inc. and Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. relating to the merger agreement signed by the parties. Plaintiffs assert claims for breach of fiduciary duty by the Orbitz Board of Directors and claims against Expedia for aiding and abetting in the Orbitz directors’ breach of their duties. Plaintiffs specifically claim that the Orbitz Board breached their fiduciary duties by agreeing to an inadequate price for the transaction and unreasonable deal protection devices. On May 20, 2015, Orbitz, its Board of Directors, and the plaintiffs entered into an agreement in principle to settle the lawsuit. On August 29, 2016, plaintiffs filed a notice of dismissal and reserved their rights to seek an award of attorneys’ fees.
Competition and Consumer Matters
Over the last several years, the online travel industry has become the subject of investigations by various national competition authorities ("NCAs"), particularly in Europe. Expedia is or has been involved in investigations predominately related to whether certain parity clauses in contracts between Expedia entities and accommodation providers, sometimes also referred to as "most favored nation" or "MFN" provisions, are anti-competitive.
In Europe, investigations or inquiries into contractual parity provisions between hotels and online travel companies, including Expedia, were initiated in 2012, 2013 and 2014 by NCAs in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland. While the ultimate outcome of some of these investigations or inquiries remains uncertain, and Expedia’s circumstances are distinguishable from other online travel companies subject to similar investigations and inquiries, we note in this context that on April 21, 2015, the French, Italian and Swedish NCAs, working in close cooperation with the European Commission, announced that they had accepted formal commitments offered by Booking.com to resolve and close the investigations against Booking.com in France, Italy and Sweden
by Booking.com removing and/or modifying certain rate, conditions and availability parity provisions in its contracts with accommodation providers in France, Italy and Sweden as of July 1, 2015, among other commitments. Booking.com voluntarily extended the geographic scope of these commitments to accommodation providers throughout Europe as of the same date.
With effect from August 1, 2015, Expedia waived certain rate, conditions and availability parity clauses in its agreements with its European hotel partners for a period of five years. While Expedia maintains that its parity clauses have always been lawful and in compliance with competition law, these waivers were nevertheless implemented as a positive step towards facilitating the closure of the open investigations into such clauses on a harmonized pan-European basis. Following the implementation of Expedia's waivers, nearly all NCAs in Europe have announced either the closure of their investigation or inquiries involving Expedia or a decision not to open an investigation or inquiry involving Expedia. Below are descriptions of additional rate parity-related matters of note in Europe.
The German Federal Cartel Office ("FCO") has required another online travel company, Hotel Reservation Service ("HRS"), to remove certain clauses from its contracts with hotels. HRS’ appeal of this decision was rejected by the Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf on January 9, 2015. On December 23, 2015, the FCO announced that it had also required Booking.com by way of an infringement decision to remove certain clauses from its contracts with German hotels. Booking.com has appealed the decision and the appeal was heard by the Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf on February 8, 2017. Those proceedings remain ongoing.
The Italian competition authority's case closure decision against Booking.com and Expedia has subsequently been appealed by two Italian hotel trade associations, i.e. Federalberghi and AICA. These appeals remain at an early stage and no hearing date has been fixed.
On November 6, 2015, the Swiss competition authority announced that it had issued a final decision finding certain parity terms existing in previous versions of agreements between Swiss hotels and each of Expedia, Booking.com and HRS to be prohibited under Swiss law. The decision explicitly notes that Expedia's current contract terms with Swiss hotels are not subject to this prohibition. The Swiss competition authority imposed no fines or other sanctions against Expedia and did not find an abuse of a dominant market position by Expedia. The FCO’s case against Expedia’s contractual parity provisions with accommodation providers in Germany remains open but is still at a preliminary stage with no formal allegations of wrong-doing having been communicated to Expedia to date.
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Repression of Fraud (the “DGCCRF”), a directorate of the French Ministry of Economy and Finance with authority over unfair trading practices, brought a lawsuit in France against Expedia entities objecting to certain parity clauses in contracts between Expedia entities and French hotels. In May 2015, the French court ruled that certain of the parity provisions in certain contracts that were the subject of the lawsuit were not in compliance with French commercial law, but imposed no fine and no injunction. The DGCCRF appealed the decision and, on June 21, 2017, the Paris Court of Appeal published a judgment overturning the decision. The court annulled parity clauses contained in the agreements at issue, ordered Expedia to amend its contracts, and imposed a fine. Expedia has appealed the decision. The appeal will not stay payment of the fine.
Hotelverband Deutschland (“IHA”) e.V. (a German hotel association) brought proceedings before the Cologne regional court against Expedia, Inc., Expedia.com GmbH and Expedia Lodging Partner Services Sàrl. IHA applied for a ‘cease and desist’ order against these companies in relation to the enforcement of certain rate and availability parity clauses contained in contracts with hotels in Germany. On or around February 16, 2017, the court dismissed IHA’s action and declared the claimant liable for the Expedia defendants’ statutory costs. IHA appealed the decision and, on December 4, 2017, the Court of Appeals rejected IHA’s appeal. The Court of Appeals expressly confirmed that Expedia’s MFNs are in compliance both with European and German competition law. While IHA had indicated an intention to appeal the decision to the Federal Supreme Court, it has not lodged an appeal within the applicable deadline, with the consequence that the Court of Appeals judgment has now become final.
A working group of 10 European NCAs (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and the European Commission has been established by the European Competition Network (“ECN”) at the end of 2015 to monitor the functioning of the online hotel booking sector, following amendments made by a number of online travel companies (including Booking.com and Expedia) in relation to certain parity provisions in their contracts with hotels. The working group issued questionnaires to online travel agencies including Expedia, metasearch sites and hotels in 2016. The underlying results of the ECN monitoring exercise were published on April 6, 2017.
Legislative bodies in France (July 2015), Austria (December 2016) and Italy (August 2017) have also adopted new domestic anti-parity clause legislation. Expedia believes each of these pieces of legislation violates both EU and national legal principles and therefore, Expedia has challenged these laws at the European Commission.
A motion requesting the Swiss government to take action on narrow price parity has been adopted in the Swiss parliament. Moreover, in Belgium, the government is also reviewing narrow parity provisions. The Company is unable to
predict whether these proposals in their current form or in another form will ultimately be adopted and, if so, when this might be the case. It is not yet clear how any adopted domestic anti-parity clause legislations and/or any possible future legislation in this area may affect Expedia’s business.
Outside of Europe, a number of NCAs have also opened investigations or inquired about contractual parity provisions in contracts between hotels and online travel companies in their respective territories, including Expedia. A Brazilian hotel sector association -- Forum de Operadores Hoteleiros do Brasil -- filed a complaint with the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defence (“CADE”) against a number of online travel companies, including Booking.com, Decolar.com and Expedia, on July 27, 2016 with respect to parity provisions in contracts between hotels and online travel companies. On September 13, 2016, Expedia submitted its response to the complaint to CADE. In late 2016, Expedia resolved the concerns of the Australia and New Zealand NCAs based on implementation of the waivers substantially similar to those provided to accommodation providers in Europe (on September 1, 2016 in Australia and on October 28, 2016 in New Zealand). More recently, however, the Australian NCA indicated that it has reopened its investigation. Expedia is in ongoing discussions with a limited number of NCAs in other countries in relation to its contracts with hotels. Expedia is currently unable to predict the impact the implementation of the waivers both in Europe and elsewhere will have on Expedia's business, on investigations or inquiries by NCAs in other countries, or on industry practice more generally.
In addition, regulatory authorities in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere have recently initiated market studies, inquiries and investigations into online marketplaces and how information is presented to consumers using those marketplaces, investigating practices such as search results rankings and algorithms, discount claims, disclosure of charges, and availability and similar messaging. We are unable to predict the implications of these market studies, inquiries and investigations on Expedia’s business.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our common stock is quoted on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “EXPE.” Our Class B common stock is not listed and there is no established public trading market. As of January 26, 2018, there were approximately 2,110 holders of record of our common stock and the closing price of our common stock was $131.76 on Nasdaq. As of January 26, 2018, all of our Class B common stock was held by a subsidiary of Liberty Expedia Holdings.
The following table sets forth the intra-day high and low prices per share for our common stock during the periods indicated:
| High | Low | ||||||
| Year ended December 31, 2017 | |||||||
| Fourth Quarter | $ | 154.24 | $ | 115.55 | |||
| Third Quarter | 161.00 | 138.35 | |||||
| Second Quarter | 156.39 | 124.33 | |||||
| First Quarter | 132.17 | 111.88 |
| High | Low | ||||||
| Year ended December 31, 2016 | |||||||
| Fourth Quarter | $ | 133.55 | $ | 112.63 | |||
| Third Quarter | 119.77 | 104.44 | |||||
| Second Quarter | 118.00 | 96.58 | |||||
| First Quarter | 122.13 | 88.40 |
Dividend Policy
In 2017 and 2016, the Executive Committee, acting on behalf of the Board of Directors, declared the following dividends:
| Declaration Date | Dividend Per Share | Record Date | Total Amount (in thousands) | Payment Date | |||||||||
| Year ended December 31, 2017: | |||||||||||||
| February 7, 2017 | $ | 0.28 | March 9, 2017 | $ | 42,247 | March 30, 2017 | |||||||
| April 26, 2017 | 0.28 | May 25, 2017 | 42,438 | June 15, 2017 | |||||||||
| July 26, 2017 | 0.30 | August 24, 2017 | 45,578 | September 14, 2017 | |||||||||
| October 25, 2017 | 0.30 | November 16, 2017 | 45,512 | December 7, 2017 | |||||||||
| Year ended December 31, 2016 | |||||||||||||
| February 8, 2016 | $ | 0.24 | March 10, 2016 | $ | 36,174 | March 30, 2016 | |||||||
| April 26, 2016 | 0.24 | May 26, 2016 | 35,773 | June 16, 2016 | |||||||||
| July 27, 2016 | 0.26 | August 25, 2016 | 39,062 | September 15, 2016 | |||||||||
| October 24, 2016 | 0.26 | November 17, 2016 | 39,150 | December 8, 2016 |
In February 2018, the Executive Committee, acting on behalf of the Board of Directors, declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share of outstanding common stock payable on March 28, 2018 to the stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 8, 2018.
Declaration and payment of future dividends, if any, is at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, cash requirements and surplus, financial condition, share dilution management, legal risks, tax policies, capital requirements relating to research and development, investments and acquisitions, challenges to our business model and other factors that the Board of Directors may deem relevant. In addition, our credit agreement limits our ability to pay cash dividends under certain circumstances.
Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities
During the quarter ended December 31, 2017, we did not issue or sell any shares of our common stock or other equity securities pursuant to unregistered transactions in reliance upon an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
A summary of the repurchase activity for the fourth quarter of 2017 is as follows:
| Period | Total Number of Shares Purchased | Average Price Paid Per Share | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under Plans or Programs | |||||||||
| (In thousands, expect per share data) | |||||||||||||
| October 1-31, 2017 | — | $ | — | — | 6,237 | ||||||||
| November 1-30, 2017 | 1,294 | 120.35 | 1,294 | 4,943 | |||||||||
| December 1-31, 2017 | — | — | — | 4,943 | |||||||||
| Total | 1,294 | 1,294 |
In 2015, the Executive Committee, acting on behalf of the Board of Directors, authorized a repurchase of up to 10 million outstanding shares of our common stock. As of December 31, 2017, 4.9 million shares remain authorized for repurchase under the 2015 authorization. There is no fixed termination date for the repurchases.
Performance Comparison Graph
The graph shows a five-year comparison of cumulative total return, calculated on a dividend reinvested basis, for Expedia common stock, the NASDAQ Composite Index, the RDG (Research Data Group) Internet Composite Index and the S&P 500. The graph assumes an investment of $100 in each of the above on December 31, 2012. The stock price performance shown in the graph is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data
We have derived the following selected financial data presented below from the consolidated financial statements and related notes. The information set forth below is not necessarily indicative of future results and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes and Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | |||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except per share data) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Consolidated Statements of Operations Data: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 10,059,844 | $ | 8,773,564 | $ | 6,672,317 | $ | 5,763,485 | $ | 4,771,259 | |||||||||
| Operating income | 625,138 | 461,702 | 413,566 | 517,764 | 366,060 | ||||||||||||||
| Net income attributable to Expedia, Inc.(1) | 377,964 | 281,848 | 764,465 | 398,097 | 232,850 | ||||||||||||||
| Earnings per share attributable to Expedia, Inc. available to common stockholders: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Basic | $ | 2.49 | $ | 1.87 | $ | 5.87 | $ | 3.09 | $ | 1.73 | |||||||||
| Diluted | 2.42 | 1.82 | 5.70 | 2.99 | 1.67 | ||||||||||||||
| Shares used in computing earnings per share: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Basic | 151,619 | 150,367 | 130,159 | 128,912 | 134,912 | ||||||||||||||
| Diluted | 156,385 | 154,517 | 134,018 | 133,168 | 139,593 | ||||||||||||||
| Dividends declared per common share | $ | 1.16 | $ | 1.00 | $ | 0.84 | $ | 0.66 | $ | 0.56 | |||||||||
| December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | |||||||||||||||
| Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Working deficit | $ | (2,339,101 | ) | $ | (2,676,947 | ) | $ | (2,949,756 | ) | $ | (1,263,283 | ) | $ | (1,075,817 | ) | ||||
| Total assets | 18,515,628 | 15,777,546 | 15,485,675 | 9,012,299 | 7,734,689 | ||||||||||||||
| Senior notes debt(2) | 4,249,054 | 3,159,336 | 3,183,140 | 1,738,548 | 1,244,620 | ||||||||||||||
| Non-redeemable non-controlling interest(3) | 1,606,233 | 1,560,802 | 65,373 | 109,462 | 113,521 | ||||||||||||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | 6,128,568 | 5,693,103 | 4,929,767 | 1,893,729 | 2,258,985 |
| (1) | On May 22, 2015, we completed the sale of our 62.4% ownership stake in eLong, Inc. We recognized an after tax gain of $395 million (or $509 million pre-tax gain) during 2015. |
| (2) | Includes current and long-term portion of senior notes. |
| (3) | On December 16, 2016, our majority-owned subsidiary, trivago, completed its IPO. In conjunction with the IPO, Expedia and trivago's founders entered into an Amended and Restated Shareholders' Agreement under which the original put/call rights were no longer effective and, as such, we reclassified the redeemable non-controlling interest into non-redeemable non-controlling interest on the consolidated balance sheet. See NOTE 12 — Redeemable Non-controlling Interests in the notes to consolidated financial statements for further information. |
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Overview
Expedia, Inc. is an online travel company, empowering business and leisure travelers with the tools and information they need to efficiently research, plan, book and experience travel. We created a global travel marketplace used by a broad range of leisure and corporate travelers, offline retail travel agents and travel service providers. We make available, on a stand-alone and package basis, travel products and services provided by numerous lodging properties, airlines, car rental companies, destination service providers, cruise lines, vacation rental property owners and managers, and other travel product and service companies. We also offer travel and non-travel advertisers access to a potential source of incremental traffic and transactions through our various media and advertising offerings on our transaction-based websites. For additional information about our portfolio of brands, see the disclosure set forth in Part I, Item 1, Business, under the caption “Management Overview.”
All percentages within this section are calculated on actual, unrounded numbers.
Trends
The travel industry, including offline agencies, online agencies and other suppliers of travel products and services, has historically been characterized by intense competition, as well as rapid and significant change. Generally, 2016 and 2017 represented years of continuing improvement for the travel industry. However, political instability, geopolitical conflicts, acts of terrorism, significant fluctuations in currency values, sovereign debt issues, natural disasters and macroeconomic concerns are examples of events that contribute to a somewhat uncertain environment, which could have a negative impact on the travel industry in the future.
Online Travel
Increased usage and familiarity with the internet drove rapid growth in online penetration of travel expenditures. According to Phocuswright, an independent travel, tourism and hospitality research firm, in 2018, over 45% of U.S. and European leisure and unmanaged corporate travel expenditures are expected to occur online. Online penetration rates in the emerging markets, such as Asia Pacific and Latin American regions, are lagging behind that of the United States and Europe, and are estimated to be in the range of 30% to 40%. These penetration rates increased over the past few years, and are expected to continue growing, which has attracted many competitors to online travel. This competition intensified in recent years, and the industry is expected to remain highly competitive for the foreseeable future. In addition to the growth of online travel agencies, airlines and lodging companies aggressively pursued direct online distribution of their products and services. Competitive entrants such as “metasearch” companies, including Kayak.com (owned by The Priceline Group), trivago (in which Expedia owns a majority interest) as well as TripAdvisor, introduced differentiated features, pricing and content compared with the legacy online travel agency companies, as well as various forms of direct or assisted booking tools, the impact of which is currently uncertain. In addition, the increasing popularity of the “sharing economy,” accelerated by online penetration, has had a direct impact on the travel and lodging industry. Players such as Airbnb, HomeAway (which Expedia acquired in December 2015) and Booking.com (owned by The Priceline Group) emerged as the leaders, bringing incremental alternative accommodation and vacation rental inventory to the market. Many other competitors, including vacation rental metasearch players, continue to emerge in this space, which is estimated by analysts to account for approximately $100 billion of annual travel spend and expected to continue to grow as a percentage of the global accommodation market. Furthermore, we saw increased interest in the online travel industry from search engine companies as evidenced by recent innovations including direct booking functionality, as well as licensing deals and proposed and actual acquisitions by companies such as Google. Finally, traditional consumer eCommerce and group buying websites expanded their local offerings into the travel market by adding hotel offers to their websites.
The online travel industry also saw the development of alternative business models and variations in the timing of payment by travelers and to suppliers, which in some cases place pressure on historical business models. In particular, the agency hotel model saw rapid adoption in Europe. Expedia distributes both merchant (Expedia Collect) and agency (Hotel Collect) hotel offerings for our hotel supply partners through both agency-only contracts as well as our hybrid ETP program, which offers travelers the choice of whether to pay Expedia at the time of booking or pay the hotel at the time of stay.
Intense competition also historically led to aggressive marketing efforts by the travel suppliers and intermediaries, and a meaningful unfavorable impact on our overall marketing efficiencies and operating margins. We manage our selling and marketing spending on a brand basis, making decisions in each applicable market that we think are appropriate based on the relative growth opportunity, the expected returns and the competitive environment. In certain cases, particularly in emerging markets, we are pursuing and expect to continue to pursue long-term growth opportunities for which our marketing efficiency is less favorable than that for our consolidated business, but for which we still believe the opportunity to be attractive. The crowded online travel environment is now driving certain secondary and tertiary online travel companies to establish marketing
agreements with global players in order to leverage distribution and technology capabilities while focusing resources on capturing traveler mind share.
In May 2015, Expedia sold its 62.4% equity stake in eLong for approximately $671 million to several purchasers including Ctrip.com International, Ltd (“Ctrip”). Expedia and Ctrip also reached agreement on cooperation for certain travel products in specified geographic markets. The transaction closed on May 22, 2015. Unless otherwise noted, all discussion in the “Trends” and “Growth Strategy” sections refers to results for Expedia, Inc. excluding eLong.
Lodging
Lodging includes hotel accommodations as well as alternative accommodations primarily made available through HomeAway. As a percentage of our total worldwide revenue in 2017, lodging accounted for 68%. Our room night growth has been healthy, with room nights excluding eLong growing 36% in 2015, 32% in 2016, and 16% in 2017. ADRs for rooms booked on Expedia and HomeAway websites excluding eLong declined 5% in 2015, increased 5% in 2016 due to the acquisition of HomeAway, and increased 3% in 2017.
Hotel. We generate the majority of our revenue through the facilitation of hotel reservations (stand-alone and package bookings). Although our relationships with our hotel supply partners remained broadly stable in the past few years, as part of the global rollout of ETP, we reduced negotiated economics in certain instances to compensate for hotel supply partners absorbing expenses such as credit card fees and customer service costs, which has negatively impacted the margin of revenue we earn per booking. In addition, as we continue to expand the breadth and depth of our global hotel offering, in some cases we have reduced our economics in various geographies based on local market conditions. These impacts are due to specific initiatives intended to drive greater global size and scale through faster overall room night growth. Additionally, increased promotional activities such as growing loyalty programs contribute to declines in revenue per room night and profitability.
Since our hotel supplier agreements are generally negotiated on a percentage basis, any increase or decrease in ADRs has an impact on the revenue we earn per
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Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Market Risk Management
Market risk is the potential loss from adverse changes in interest rates, foreign exchange rates and market prices. Our exposure to market risk includes our long-term debt, our revolving credit facility, derivative instruments and cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, intercompany receivables, investments, merchant accounts payable and deferred merchant bookings denominated in foreign currencies. We manage our exposure to these risks through established policies and procedures. Our objective is to mitigate potential income statement, cash flow and market exposures from changes in interest and foreign exchange rates.
Interest Rate Risk
In August 2006, we issued $500 million senior unsecured notes with a fixed rate of 7.456%. In August 2010, we issued $750 million senior unsecured notes with a fixed rate of 5.95%. In August 2014, we issued $500 million senior unsecured notes with a fixed rate of 4.5%. In June 2015, we issued Euro 650 million of senior unsecured notes with a fixed rate of 2.5%. (See “Foreign Exchange Risk” below for further discussion or our 2.5% Notes.) In December 2015, we issued $750 million of senior unsecured notes with a fixed rate of 5.0%. In September 2017, we issued $1 billion of senior unsecured notes with a fixed rate of 3.8%. As a result, if market interest rates decline, our required payments will exceed those based on market rates. The fair values of our 7.456% Notes, 5.95% Notes, 2.5% Notes, 4.5% Notes, 5.0% Notes and 3.8% Notes were approximately $516 million, $810 million, $828 million, $528 million, $807 million and $969 million as of December 31, 2017 as calculated based on quoted market prices in less active markets at year end. A 50 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates would decrease or increase the fair value of our 7.456% Notes by approximately $2 million, our 5.95% Notes by approximately $10 million, our 2.5% Notes by approximately $17 million, our 4.5% Notes by approximately $15 million, our 5.0% Notes by approximately $27 million and our 3.8% Notes by approximately $41 million.
We maintain a $1.5 billion revolving credit facility, which bears interest based on market rates plus a spread determined by our credit ratings. Because our interest rate is tied to a market rate, we will be susceptible to fluctuations in interest rates if, consistent with our practice to date, we do not hedge the interest rate exposure arising from any borrowings under our revolving credit facility. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, we had no revolving credit facility borrowings outstanding.
We did not experience any significant impact from changes in interest rates for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 or 2015.
Foreign Exchange Risk
We conduct business in certain international markets, primarily in Australia, Canada, China and the European Union. Because we operate in international markets, we have exposure to different economic climates, political arenas, tax systems and regulations that could affect foreign exchange rates. Our primary exposure to foreign currency risk relates to transacting in foreign currency and recording the activity in U.S. dollars. Changes in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and these other currencies will result in transaction gains or losses, which we recognize in our consolidated statements of operations.
To the extent practicable, we minimize our foreign currency exposures by maintaining natural hedges between our current assets and current liabilities in similarly denominated foreign currencies. Additionally, we use foreign currency forward contracts to economically hedge certain merchant revenue exposures, foreign denominated liabilities related to certain of our loyalty programs and our other foreign currency-denominated operating liabilities. These instruments are typically short-term and are recorded at fair value with gains and losses recorded in other, net. As of December 31, 2017, we had a net forward asset of $6 million included in prepaid expenses and other current assets As of December 31, 2016, we had a net forward liability of $4 million included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities. We may enter into additional foreign exchange derivative contracts or other economic hedges in the future. Our goal in managing our foreign exchange risk is to reduce to the extent practicable our potential exposure to the changes that exchange rates might have on our earnings, cash flows and financial position. We make a number of estimates in conducting hedging activities including in some cases the level of future bookings, cancellations, refunds, customer stay patterns and payments in foreign currencies. In the event those estimates differ significantly from actual results, we could experience greater volatility as a result of our hedges.
In June 2015, we issued Euro 650 million of registered senior unsecured notes that are due in June 2022 and bear interest at 2.5%. The aggregate principal value of the 2.5% Notes is designated as a hedge of our net investment in certain Euro functional currency subsidiaries. The notes are measured at Euro to U.S. Dollar exchange rates at each balance sheet date and transaction gains or losses due to changes in rates are recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). The Euro-denominated net assets of these subsidiaries are translated into U.S. Dollars at each balance sheet date, with effects of foreign currency changes also reported in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). Since the notional amount of the recorded
Euro-denominated debt is less than the notional amount of our net investment, we do not expect to incur any ineffectiveness on this hedge.
Future net transaction gains and losses are inherently difficult to predict as they are reliant on how the multiple currencies in which we transact fluctuate in relation to the U.S. dollar, the relative composition and denomination of current assets and liabilities each period, and our effectiveness at forecasting and managing, through balance sheet netting or the use of derivative contracts, such exposures. As an example, if the foreign currencies in which we hold net asset balances were to all weaken 10% against the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies in which we hold net liability balances were to all strengthen 10% against the U.S. dollar, we would recognize foreign exchange losses of approximately $26 million based on our foreign currency forward positions (including the impact of forward positions economically hedging our merchant revenue exposures) and the net asset or liability balances of our foreign denominated cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, deferred merchant bookings and merchant accounts payable balances as of December 31, 2017. As the net composition of these balances fluctuate frequently, even daily, as do foreign exchange rates, the example loss could be compounded or reduced significantly within a given period.
During 2017, 2016 and 2015, we recorded net foreign exchange rate losses of approximately $46 million ($40 million loss excluding the contracts economically hedging our forecasted merchant revenue), net foreign exchange rate losses of approximately $15 million ($30 million loss excluding the contracts economically hedging our forecasted merchant revenue) and net foreign exchange rate gains of approximately $25 million ($15 million loss excluding the contracts economically hedging our forecasted merchant revenue). As we increase our operations in international markets, our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates increases. The economic impact to us of foreign currency exchange rate movements is linked to variability in real growth, inflation, interest rates, governmental actions and other factors. These changes, if material, could cause us to adjust our financing and operating strategies.
Item 8. Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
The Consolidated Financial Statements and Schedule listed in the Index to Financial Statements, Schedules and Exhibits on page F-1 are filed as part of this report.
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting.
There were no changes to our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2017 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures.
As required by Rule 13a-15(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), our management, including our Chairman and Senior Executive, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Exchange Act). Based upon that evaluation, our Chairman and Senior Executive, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of the end of the period covered by this report, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.
Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting.
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) of the Exchange Act. Internal control over financial reporting is a process to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of our financial reporting for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria for effective control over financial reporting described in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, management has concluded that, as of December 31, 2017, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective. Management has reviewed its assessment with the Audit Committee. Ernst & Young, LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, has audited the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, as stated in their report which is included below.
Limitations on Controls.
Management does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent or detect all error and fraud. Any control system, no matter how well designed and operated, is based upon certain assumptions and can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that its objectives will be met. Further, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the Company have been detected.
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Directors and Stockholders
Expedia, Inc.
We have audited Expedia, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), (the COSO criteria). Expedia, Inc.’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, Expedia, Inc. maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on the COSO criteria.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the 2017 consolidated financial statements of Expedia, Inc. and our report dated February 8, 2018 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
/s/Ernst & Young LLP
Seattle, Washington
February 8, 2018
Item 9B. Other Information
None.
Part III.
We are incorporating by reference the information required by Part III of this report on Form 10-K from our proxy statement relating to our 2018 annual meeting of stockholders (the “2018 Proxy Statement”), which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended December 31, 2017.
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
The information required by this item is included under the captions “Election of Directors — Nominees,” “Election of Directors — Board Meetings and Committees,” “Information Concerning Executive Officers” and “Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance” in the 2018 Proxy Statement and incorporated herein by reference.
Item 11. Executive Compensation
The information required by this item is included under the captions “Election of Directors —Compensation of Non-Employee Directors,” “Election of Directors — Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation,” “Compensation Discussion and Analysis,” “Compensation Committee Report” and “Executive Compensation” in the 2018 Proxy Statement and incorporated herein by reference.
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
The information required by this item is included under the captions “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management” and “Equity Compensation Plan Information” in the 2018 Proxy Statement and incorporated herein by reference.
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
The information required by this item is included under the captions “Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions” and “Election of Directors — Board Meetings and Committees” in the 2018 Proxy Statement and incorporated herein by reference.
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services
The information required by this item is included under the caption “Audit Committee Report” in the 2018 Proxy Statement and incorporated herein by reference.
Item 15. Exhibits, Consolidated Financial Statements and Financial Statement Schedules
(a)(1) Consolidated Financial Statements
We have filed the consolidated financial statements listed in the Index to Consolidated Financial Statements, Schedules and Exhibits on page F-1 as a part of this report.
(a)(2) Financial Statement Schedules
All financial statement schedules have been omitted because they are not applicable, not material or the required information is shown in the consolidated financial statements or the notes thereto.
(a)(3) Exhibits
The exhibits listed below are filed as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
| Exhibit No. | Filed Herewith | Incorporated by Reference | ||||||||||
| Exhibit Description | Form | SEC File No. | Exhibit | Filing Date | ||||||||
| 1.1 | Underwriting Agreement, dated Expedia, Inc., as Issuer, the Guarantors party thereto, and BNP Paribas, Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities plc, as Representatives of the several Underwriters (relating to the Fourth Supplemental Indenture on Exhibit 4.6) | 8-K | 000-51447 | 1.1 | 6/3/2015 |
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