Expedia 2009 Annual Report Download - page 28

• Difficulties and expenses in assimilating the operations, products, technology, privacy protection systems,
information systems or personnel of the acquired company;
• Impairment of relationships with employees, suppliers and affiliates of our business and the acquired
business;
• The assumption of known and unknown debt and liabilities of the acquired company;
• Failure to generate adequate returns on our acquisitions and investments;
• Entrance into markets in which we have no direct prior experience; and
• Impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets arising from our acquisitions.
We cannot be sure that our intellectual property is protected from copying or use by others, including
potential competitors.
Our websites rely on content and technology intellectual property, much of which we regard as proprietary.
We protect our proprietary technology by relying on trademarks, copyrights, trade secret laws, patents and
confidentiality agreements. In connection with our license agreements with third parties, we seek to control
access to and distribution of our technology, documentation and other proprietary information. Even with all of
these precautions, it is possible for someone else to copy or otherwise obtain and use our proprietary technology
or content without our authorization or to develop similar technology independently. Effective trademark,
copyright, patent and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our services are
made available through the internet, and policing unauthorized use of our proprietary information is difficult and
expensive. We cannot be sure that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our proprietary
information. This misappropriation could have a material adverse effect on our business. In the future, we may
need to go to court to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets or to determine the
validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. This litigation might result in substantial costs and diversion
of resources and management attention.
We currently license from third parties some of the technologies incorporated into our websites. As we
continue to introduce new services that incorporate new technologies, we may be required to license additional
technology. We cannot be sure that such technology licenses will be available on commercially reasonable terms,
if at all.
Part I. Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Part I. Item 2. Properties
We lease approximately 1.4 million square feet of office space worldwide, pursuant to leases with
expiration dates through October 2018.
We lease approximately 348,000 square feet for our headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, pursuant to a
lease with an expiration date of October 2018. We also lease approximately 593,000 square feet of office space
for our domestic operations in various cities and locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington and Washington DC,
pursuant to leases with expiration dates through April 2015.
We also lease approximately 419,000 square feet of office space for our international operations in various
cities and locations, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, India,
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand and the United
Kingdom, pursuant to leases with expiration dates through February 2018.
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