Priceline 2015 Annual Report Download - page 4

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K and the documents incorporated herein by reference contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements reflect our views regarding current expectations and projections about future events and conditions and are based on currently available information.
These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict,
including the Risk Factors identified in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report; therefore, actual results could differ materially from those expressed, implied or
forecast in any such forward-looking statements.
Expressions of future goals and expectations and similar expressions, including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expects," "plans," "anticipates,"
"intends," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "targets," and "continue," reflecting something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-
looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements for various reasons including the risks we
face, which are more fully described in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors." Unless required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-
looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. However, readers should carefully review the reports and documents we file
or furnish from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC" or the "Commission"), particularly our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and
current reports on Form 8-K.
PART I
Item 1. Business
We help people experience the world by providing consumers, travel service providers and restaurants with leading travel and restaurant reservation and
related services. Through our online travel companies ("OTCs"), we connect consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services
around the world. We are the leader in the worldwide online accommodation reservation market based on room nights booked. We offer consumers a broad array
of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other properties) through our Booking.com,
priceline.com and agoda.com brands. Our priceline.com brand also offers consumers reservations for rental cars, airline tickets, vacation packages and cruises. We
offer rental car reservations worldwide through rentalcars.com. We also allow consumers to easily compare airline ticket, hotel reservation and rental car
reservation information from hundreds of travel websites at once through KAYAK. We provide restaurants with reservation management services and consumers
with the ability to make restaurant reservations at participating restaurants through OpenTable, a leading provider of online restaurant reservations.
We launched our business in the United States in 1998 under the priceline.com brand and have since expanded our operations to include five other
primary, independently operated brands: Booking.com, KAYAK, agoda.com, rentalcars.com and OpenTable. Our mission is to help people experience the world
by serving both consumers and our travel service provider and restaurant partners with worldwide leadership in online reservation and related services. Our
business is driven primarily by international results, which consist of the results of Booking.com, agoda.com and rentalcars.com and the results of the
internationally-based websites of KAYAK and OpenTable (in each case regardless of where the consumer resides, where the consumer is physically located while
making a reservation or the location of the travel service provider or restaurant). During the year ended December 31, 2015 , our international business (the
substantial majority of which is generated by Booking.com) represented approximately 88% of our gross bookings (an operating and statistical metric referring to
the total dollar value, generally inclusive of all taxes and fees, of all travel services booked by our customers, net of cancellations), approximately 86% of our
consolidated gross profit and approximately 94% of our consolidated operating income. A significant majority of our gross profit is earned in connection with
facilitating accommodation reservations. See Note 17 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for more geographic information.
The Priceline Group Inc. was formed as a Delaware limited liability company in 1997 and was converted into a Delaware corporation in July 1998. On
April 1, 2014, the Company changed its name from priceline.com Incorporated to The Priceline Group Inc. Our common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global
Select Market under the symbol "PCLN." Our principal executive offices are located at 800 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut 06854. We refer to our
company and all of our subsidiaries and brands, including Booking.com, priceline.com, KAYAK, agoda.com, rentalcars.com, OpenTable and various smaller
brands, collectively as "The Priceline Group," the "Company," "we," "our" or "us." We determined that our brands constitute our operating segments. We have
aggregated our operating segments into one reportable segment. See Note 2 to our Consolidated Financial Statements.
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