Expedia 2015 Annual Report Download - page 30

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• Changes in search industry dynamics, such as key word pricing and traffic, or other changes that
negatively affect our ability to generate traffic to our websites;
• Announcements of dividends or changes in the amount or frequency of our dividends;
• Announcements of technological innovations or new services by us or our competitors;
• Announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, strategic partnerships,
joint ventures or capital commitments;
• Loss of a major travel supplier, such as an airline, hotel or car rental chain;
• Changes in the status of our intellectual property rights;
• Lack of success in the expansion of our business model geographically;
• Significant claims or proceedings against us or adverse developments or decisions in pending
proceedings;
• Significant security breaches;
• Additions or departures of key personnel;
• Rumors or public speculation about any of the above factors; and
• Price and volume fluctuations in the stock markets in general.
Volatility in our stock price could also make us less attractive to certain investors, and/or invite speculative
trading in our common stock or debt instruments.
We may experience constraints in our liquidity and may be unable to access capital when necessary or
desirable, either of which could harm our financial position.
We are accumulating a greater portion of our cash flows in foreign jurisdictions than previously and any
repatriation of such funds for use in the United States, including for corporate purposes such as acquisitions,
stock repurchases, dividends or debt refinancings, would likely result in additional U.S. income tax expense. In
addition, we have experienced, and may experience in the future, declines in seasonal liquidity and capital
provided by our merchant hotel business, which has historically provided a meaningful portion of our operating
cash flow and is dependent on several factors, including the rate of growth of our merchant hotel business and the
relative growth of businesses which consume rather than generate working capital, such as our agency hotel,
advertising and managed corporate travel businesses and payment terms with suppliers. We also continued to see
growth in both our merchant (Expedia collect) and our agency (hotel collect) hotel products. To the extent our
merchant hotel business stopped growing or began to decline, it would likely result in pressure on our working
capital cash balances, cash flow over time and liquidity. Moreover, we expended significant resources in 2015 in
acquiring and investing in a number of companies, including Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., Decolar.com, Inc. and
HomeAway, Inc. (“HomeAway”) and certain assets of Travelocity.com LP and we may be obligated to expend
significant additional resources in 2016 in connection with certain “put” rights associated with our majority
investment in trivago, which rights are exercisable by trivago’s current shareholders in 2016.
The availability of funds depends in significant measure on capital markets and liquidity factors over which
we exert no control. In light of periodic uncertainty in the capital and credit markets, we can provide no
assurance that sufficient financing will be available on desirable or even any terms to fund investments,
acquisitions, stock repurchases, dividends, debt refinancing or extraordinary actions or that our counterparties in
any such financings would honor their contractual commitments. In addition, any downgrade of our debt ratings
by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investor Service, Fitch or similar ratings agencies, increases in general interest
rate levels and credit spreads or overall weakening in the credit markets could increase our cost of capital.
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