8-K
Sabre Corp false 0001597033 0001597033 2020-04-13 2020-04-13

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 8-K

 

CURRENT REPORT

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): April 13, 2020

 

SABRE CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Delaware

 

001-36422

 

20-8647322

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

 

(Commission

File Number)

 

(IRS Employer

Identification No.)

3150 Sabre Drive

Southlake, TX

 

76092

(Address of principal executive offices)

 

(Zip Code)

(682) 605-1000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class

 

Trading

Symbol

 

Name of each exchange

on which registered

Common Stock, $.01 par value

 

SABR

 

The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).

Emerging growth company  

If 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.  

 

 


Item 2.01. Results of Operations and Financial Condition.

The information in Item 8.01 below is incorporated by reference herein.

Item 8.01. Other Events.

On April 13, 2020, Sabre Corporation (“Sabre,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) issued a press release announcing the commencement of proposed offerings by its wholly-owned subsidiary Sabre GLBL Inc. (“Sabre GLBL”) of (1) $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes due 2025 (the “Secured Notes”) and (2) $250,000,000 aggregate principal amount (or $287,500,000 aggregate principal amount if the initial purchasers fully exercise their option to purchase additional notes) of senior exchangeable notes due 2025 (the “Exchangeable Notes” and together with the Secured Notes, the “Notes”). A copy of the press release announcing the offerings is attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this Form 8-K and incorporated by reference herein.

The precise timing, size and terms of the offerings are subject to market conditions and other factors. The completion of the Secured Notes offering is not contingent on the consummation of the Exchangeable Notes offering, and the completion of the Exchangeable Notes offering is not contingent on the consummation of the Secured Notes offering.

The Notes, the related note guarantees and any shares of common stock issuable upon exchange of the Exchangeable Notes have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) or any state securities laws. The Notes, the related note guarantees and any such shares may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration under, or an applicable exemption from, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws.

A confidential offering circular for each offering is being furnished to prospective investors. Certain disclosures that are included in the confidential offering circulars are attached as Exhibit 99.2 to this Form 8-K and incorporated by reference herein. Certain of this information has not previously been made publicly available by the registrant. This Form 8-K also updates certain information previously reported by the Company.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements herein are forward-looking statements about trends, future events, uncertainties and our plans and expectations of what may happen in the future. Any statements that are not historical or current facts are forward-looking statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “believe,” “could,” “likely,” “expect,” “plan,” “commit,” “guidance,” “outlook,” “anticipate,” “will,” “incremental,” “preliminary,” “forecast,” “continue,” “strategy,” “confidence,” “momentum,” “estimate,” “objective,” “project,” “may,” “should,” “would,” “intend,” “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. More information about potential risks and uncertainties that could affect our business and results of operations is included in the “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements” sections in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 26, 2020 and in our other filings with the SEC. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future events, outlook, guidance, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Unless required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events after the date they are made.

Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits

 

99.1

   

Press Release dated April 13, 2020.

         
 

99.2

   

Disclosures regarding Sabre Corporation.

         
 

104

   

Cover Page Interactive Data File-formatted as Inline XBRL.


SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

 

 

Sabre Corporation

             

Dated: April 13, 2020

 

 

By:

 

/s/ Aimee Williams-Ramey

 

 

Name:

 

Aimee Williams-Ramey

 

 

Title:

 

Senior Vice President and General Counsel

EX-99.1

Exhibit 99.1

 

LOGO

Sabre Corporation Announces Offerings of Senior Secured Notes and Senior Exchangeable Notes

SOUTHLAKE, Texas, April 13, 2020 — Sabre Corporation (“Sabre”) (Nasdaq: SABR) today announced proposed offerings (the “Offerings”) by its wholly-owned subsidiary Sabre GLBL Inc. (“Sabre GLBL”) of (1) $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes (the “Secured Notes”) and (2) $250,000,000 aggregate principal amount (or $287,500,000 aggregate principal amount if the initial purchasers fully exercise their option to purchase additional notes) of senior exchangeable notes due 2025 (the “Exchangeable Notes” and together with the Secured Notes, the “Notes”). The precise timing, size and terms of the offerings are subject to market conditions and other factors. No assurance can be made that the offerings will be consummated on their proposed terms or at all. The completion of the Secured Notes offering is not contingent on the consummation of the Exchangeable Notes offering, and the completion of the Exchangeable Notes offering is not contingent on the consummation of the Secured Notes offering.

The Secured Notes will be guaranteed by Sabre Holdings Corporation and each subsidiary that borrows under or guarantees Sabre GLBL’s senior secured credit facility. The Secured Notes and the note guarantees will be secured, subject to permitted liens, by a first-priority security interest in substantially all present and hereafter acquired property and assets of Sabre GLBL and the guarantors (other than certain excluded assets).

The Exchangeable Notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of Sabre GLBL, will accrue interest payable semi-annually in arrears and will mature on April 15, 2025, unless earlier repurchased or exchanged. The Exchangeable Notes will be exchangeable at their holders’ election, under specified circumstances, into consideration based on Sabre common stock. This consideration will consist of shares of Sabre common stock, cash, or a mixture of the two at Sabre GLBL’s election. Upon any future occurrence of a “fundamental change” (as defined in the indenture governing the Exchangeable Notes), holders may require Sabre GLBL to repurchase their Exchangeable Notes at a price equal to principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest. The interest rate, initial exchange rate and other terms of the Exchangeable Notes will be determined at the pricing of the offering. The Exchangeable Notes will be guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis by Sabre and Sabre Holdings Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sabre.

The net proceeds from the sales of the Notes will be used for general corporate purposes.

The Secured Notes and the related note guarantees will be offered in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and to non-U.S. persons in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Exchangeable Notes and the related note guarantees will be offered to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act. The Notes, the related note guarantees and any shares of common stock issuable upon exchange of the Exchangeable Notes have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws. The Notes, the related note guarantees and any such shares may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration under, or an applicable exemption from, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes or any other security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which, or to any persons to whom, such offering, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Any offers of the Notes will be made only by means of a private offering circular. This press release is being issued pursuant to and in accordance with Rule 135c under the Securities Act.

About Sabre Corporation

Sabre Corporation is a leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry, serving a wide range of travel companies including airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and other suppliers. The company provides retailing, distribution and fulfilment solutions that help its customers operate more efficiently, drive revenue and offer personalized traveler experiences.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements herein are forward-looking statements about trends, future events, uncertainties and our plans and expectations of what may happen in the future. Any statements that are not historical or current facts are forward-looking statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “believe,” “could,” “likely,” “expect,”


“plan,” “commit,” “guidance,” “outlook,” “anticipate,” “will,” “incremental,” “preliminary,” “forecast,” “continue,” “strategy,” “confidence,” “momentum,” “estimate,” “objective,” “project,” “may,” “should,” “would,” “intend,” “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Sabre’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. More information about potential risks and uncertainties that could affect our business and results of operations is included in the “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements” sections in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 26, 2020, the Form 8-K filed with the SEC on April 13, 2020 and in our other filings with the SEC. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future events, outlook, guidance, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Unless required by law, Sabre undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events after the date they are made.

SABR-F

Contacts:

Media

Kristin Hays

kristin.hays@sabre.com

sabrenews@sabre.com

Investors

Kevin Crissey

kevin.crissey@sabre.com

sabre.investorrelations@sabre.com

EX-99.2

Exhibit 99.2

DISCLOSURES REGARDING SABRE CORPORATION

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This offering circular includes or incorporates by reference “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts, such as statements regarding our future financial condition or results of operations, our prospects and strategies for future growth, the development and introduction of new products, and the implementation of our strategies. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “expects,” “outlook,” “believes,” “provisional,” “may,” “intends,” “will,” “predicts,” “potential,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “should,” “plans” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.

The forward-looking statements contained or incorporated by reference in this offering circular are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions and are subject to risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that may cause events or our actual activities or results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future events, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, those factors described in “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” as included elsewhere or incorporated by reference in this offering circular. These factors include, without limitation, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory conditions and the following:

 

   

factors affecting transaction volumes in the global travel industry, particularly air travel transaction volumes, including global and regional economic and political conditions, financial instability or fundamental corporate changes to travel suppliers, outbreaks of contagious diseases, natural or man-made disasters, safety concerns or changes to regulations governing the travel industry;

 

   

the severity, extent and duration of the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our business and results of operations, financial condition and credit ratings, as well as on the travel industry and consumer spending more broadly, the actions taken to contain the disease or treat its impact, the effect of remote working arrangements on our operations and the speed and extent of the recovery across the broader travel ecosystem;

 

   

systems and infrastructure failures or other unscheduled shutdowns or disruptions, including those due to natural disasters or cybersecurity attacks;


   

availability and performance of information technology services provided by third parties, such as DXC Technology, which manages a significant portion of our systems and was formed in April 2017 from the spin-off of HP Enterprises’ Services segment business and a merger with Computer Services Corp. (CSC), which could result in additional costs or business disruptions for us;

 

   

security breaches occurring at our facilities or with respect to our infrastructure, resulting from computer viruses, malware, denial of service attacks by hackers, attacks on hardware vulnerabilities, physical or electronic break-ins, cybersecurity incidents or similar distributive problems;

 

   

potential failure to successfully implement software solutions, which could result in damage to our reputation;

 

   

our Travel Network business’ exposure to pricing pressures from travel suppliers and its dependence on relationships with several large travel buyers;

 

   

the fact that travel supplier customers may experience financial instability, consolidate with one another, pursue cost reductions, change their distribution model or experience other changes adverse to us;

 

   

travel suppliers’ use of alternative distribution models, such as direct distribution channels, technological incompatibilities between suppliers’ travel content and our GDS, and the diversion of consumer traffic to other channels;

 

   

our ability to adapt to technological developments or the evolving competitive landscape by introducing relevant new technologies, products and services;

 

   

potential negative impact of competition from other third-party solutions providers and from new participants entering the solutions market on our ability to maintain and grow our Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses;

 

   

competition in the travel distribution market from other GDS providers, direct distribution by travel suppliers and new entrants or technologies that could challenge the existing GDS business model;

 

   

our ability to renew existing contracts or to enter into new contracts with travel supplier and buyer customers, third-party distributor partners and joint ventures on economically favorable terms or at all;

 

   

the potential failure to recruit, train and retain employees, including our key executive officers and key technical employees;

 

   

liabilities arising from our collection, processing, storage, use and transmission of personal data resulting from conflicting legal requirements, governmental regulation or security breaches, including compliance with payment card industry regulations;

 

   

our business being harmed by adverse global and regional economic and political conditions, particularly, given our geographic concentration, those that may adversely affect business and leisure travel originating in, or travel to, the United States and Europe, including the approval by voters in the U.K. for that country to exit the E.U. and economic uncertainty over related negotiations;

 

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risks associated with operating as a global business in multiple countries and in multiple currencies;

 

   

risks associated with the value of our brand, which may be damaged by a number of factors, some of which are out of our control;

 

   

adverse outcomes in our legal proceedings, including our litigation with US Airways or the antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, whether in the form of money damages or injunctive relief that could force changes to the way we operate our GDS;

 

   

our failure to comply with regulations that are applicable to us or any unfavorable changes in, or the enactment of, laws, rules or regulations applicable to us;

 

   

our reliance on third-party distributors and joint ventures to extend our GDS services to certain regions, which exposes us to risks associated with lack of direct management control and potential conflicts of interest;

 

   

risks associated with our use of open source software, including the possible future need to acquire licenses from third parties or re-engineer our solutions;

 

   

risks associated with acquisitions, divestitures, investments and strategic alliances;

 

   

our ability to protect and maintain our information technology and intellectual property rights, as well as defend against potential infringement claims against us, and the associated costs;

 

   

the possibility that we may have insufficient insurance to cover our liability for pending litigation claims or future claims, which could expose us to significant liabilities;

 

   

defects in our products resulting in significant warranty liabilities or product liability claims, for which we may have insufficient product liability insurance to pay material uninsured claims;

 

   

the fact that we may have higher than anticipated tax liabilities;

 

   

the fact that we may recognize impairments on long-lived assets, including goodwill and other intangible assets, or recognize impairments on our equity method investments;

 

   

the fact that our pension plan is currently underfunded and we may need to make significant cash contributions to our pension plan in the future, which could reduce the cash available for our business;

 

   

the fact that we may require more cash than we generate in our operating activities, and additional funding on reasonable terms or at all may not be available;

 

   

our significant amount of long-term indebtedness and the related restrictive covenants in the agreements governing our indebtedness;

 

   

our exposure to interest rate and exchange rate fluctuations;

 

   

the updating of some of our business process systems, including our enterprise resource planning system, including problems with the design or implementation of this system;

 

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risks associated with maintaining and improving our financial controls and the requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members; and

 

   

other risks and uncertainties, including those listed in the “Risk Factors” section and under “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

These statements are based on current plans, estimates and projections, and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update them publicly in light of new information or future events.

You should carefully consider the risks specified in the “Risk Factors” section of this offering circular, as well as other risks and uncertainties described under “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and in subsequent public statements or reports we file with or furnish to the SEC, before making any investment decision with respect to our securities. If any of these trends, risks or uncertainties actually occurs or continues, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected, the trading prices of our securities could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

 

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Recent Developments

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan, China, and has since spread to other regions, including the United States and Europe. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak was a global pandemic. As a result, air, hotel and other travel bookings have suffered unprecedented reductions across the world, significantly adversely affecting our business. See “Risk Factors- Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic.” We have responded to the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic with liquidity and cost saving measures, as described below.

Significant events affecting travel, including events such as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 2003 outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), typically have an impact on booking patterns, with the full extent of the impact generally determined by the length of time the event and related government and societal reactions influence travel decisions. COVID-19 has had a significant adverse effect on the travel industry, global travel bookings and on our business, financial condition and operating results. This adverse effect is very likely to continue until the virus is contained and may continue thereafter, particularly if government regulation of, and consumer attitudes toward, travel change in a lasting way.

Business Impact

Approximately 20% of our revenues are not directly linked to air traffic transaction volume, which mitigates Sabre’s exposure to the impact of the virus to some extent.

Nonetheless, the pandemic negatively impacted our results beginning in mid-January and had a steady accelerating impact in both February and March. As a result, our gross bookings declined by 8%, 17% and 70% in January, February and March 2020, respectively, compared to the same month in the prior year. Significant cancellations created a substantial additional negative impact on our net bookings, defined as gross bookings less cancellations, in those months, particularly in March 2020 in which our net bookings were negative as a result. We anticipate that cancellation rates in April and May will decline from the March 2020 rate, and that rebookings will stabilize as traffic patterns recover, although the timing of this is uncertain.

Our preliminary estimate of our combined operating revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2020 is in the range of approximately $645 million to $670 million, compared to approximately $1.0 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2019. We believe our Adjusted EBITDA will be positive for the quarter ending March 31, 2020. See “ —Use Caution When Considering Our Preliminary Estimated Financial Information” for cautionary information concerning our preliminary estimates.

Use Caution When Considering Our Preliminary Estimated Financial Information

Our financial statements as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2020 are not yet complete. Accordingly, we are presenting preliminary estimates of certain financial information that we expect to report as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2020. We have prepared the preliminary estimates on a materially consistent basis with the financial data presented in “Summary Consolidated Financial Data” in good faith based upon our internal reporting as of

 

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and for the three months ended March 31, 2020. These estimated ranges are preliminary and unaudited and are inherently uncertain and subject to change as we complete our financial statements as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2020. Given the timing of these estimates, we have not completed our customary financial closing and review procedures, including, but not limited to, the completion of impairment tests for goodwill and certain long-lived assets, as well as full income tax calculations. These estimates should not be viewed as a substitute for full interim financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The trends and preliminary estimated results discussed in this offering circular are based on preliminary financial information for the three months ended March 31, 2020. Final results for the first quarter of 2020 could differ materially from those expectations. Investors should exercise caution in relying on this information and should not draw any inferences from this information regarding financial or operating data not yet provided or available. These preliminary results are subject to the review by our audit committee and the independent auditors. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Accordingly, the Company’s independent auditors do not express an opinion or any other form of assurance with respect thereto. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from our preliminary estimates are set forth under the headings “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements.” Purchasers of the notes should not place undue reliance on these estimates.

Given the magnitude and uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic effects, on March 20, 2020 Sabre withdrew the guidance provided on its February 26th, 2020 earnings call.

Liquidity and Cost Savings Measures

The reduction in revenues described above has significantly adversely affected our liquidity. We are responding with measures to increase our cash position, including through the current offerings, as well as previously announced actions such as borrowings under our existing revolving credit facility, implementation of cost savings measures and suspension of dividends and share repurchases. We are also reviewing other potential cost savings actions.

We had a cash balance of approximately $685 million as of March 31, 2020 including the net proceeds from $375 million of additional borrowings under our revolving credit facility. We anticipate receiving net proceeds of approximately $493 million from this offering and $243 million from the concurrent offering of exchangeable notes (although consummation of the concurrent offering is not a condition to this offering). Our cash balance as of March 31, 2020, after giving effect on a pro forma basis to:

 

   

the concurrent offerings (assuming no exercise of the overallotment option in respect of the exchangeable notes);

 

   

liabilities for refunds from cancellations incurred but not yet paid; and

 

   

incentive fees due in March to agencies that had been delayed in order to allow adjustment to account for cancellations

would have been $1,339 million.

 

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Approximately 15% of our revenues are not directly linked to transaction volume for the travel industry as a whole.

We believe that about two-thirds of our cost structure is adjustable in the near-term, comprised largely of incentive expenses that decline proportionally with bookings and including other variable expenses that are subject to the cost savings measures described below. Based on this, we estimate that, if there were no net bookings at all utilizing our services, we would incur cash outlay of revenue less expense, inclusive of interest, capital expenditures and debt amortization, of approximately $80 million per month based on our current cost structure after giving effect to:

 

   

the realization of approximately $325 million of estimated net savings in 2020 (assuming the effectiveness of the cost savings measures described below); and

 

   

consummation of the concurrent offerings and current borrowings under our revolving credit facility.

This amount is an estimate and would be increased or decreased by any changes affecting our cost structure and on receipt of any bookings. See “Risk Factors – Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic – Our cash outlay of revenue less expense per month may be different than we have projected if we are unable to realize the anticipated cost savings described in this offering circular.”

As of March 31, 2020 the net value of our revenue booked in respect of segments not yet departed, after taking into account related reserves, was approximately $105 million. This reflects departures through the remainder of the year and includes a reserve for future cancellations of approximately $45 million as of March 31, 2020.

As previously announced, we identified and are in the process of removing costs from the business in 2020 that we currently estimate would result in over $200 million in net cash cost savings during 2020. Since that announcement, we have identified additional costs that we intend to remove that we currently estimate would result in an additional $125 million in net cash cost savings during 2020, for a total of $325 million. Given the magnitude of travel decline and the unknown duration of the COVID-19 impact, we will continue to monitor travel activity and take additional steps should we determine they are necessary.

As part of these cost reduction efforts, we are implementing several immediate actions with regard to our workforce and other costs during this difficult business climate. These actions include:

 

   

A temporary reduction in base compensation pay for our US-based salaried workforce, including a 25% reduction for our CEO, and Sabre will work with international employees on a country-by-country basis,

 

   

A reduction in the cash retainer for members of the Board of Directors,

 

   

Our 401(k) match program will be temporarily suspended for US-based employees,

 

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On a global basis, we are offering voluntary unpaid time off, voluntary severance and a voluntary early retirement program, and

 

   

Reductions in third-party contracting, vendor costs and other discretionary spending.

Additionally, the decline in global travel driven by COVID-19 is expected to result in:

 

   

A proportional decline in Sabre Travel Network incentive expense, and

 

   

A reduction in our semi-variable technology hosting costs, which were approximately $250 million in 2019.

In addition to the cost reductions described above:

 

   

On March 16, our Board of Directors voted to suspend the payment of quarterly cash dividends on Sabre’s common stock, effective with respect to the dividends occurring after the March 30, 2020 payment, and

 

   

Sabre announced the suspension of its share repurchase program.

Although our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement requires us to meet certain financial tests, including the maintenance of a leverage ratio, under the agreement’s terms, we may suspend the financial covenant related to our leverage ratio if a “Material Travel Event Disruption” (as defined therein) has occurred. We believe that as a result of recent capacity reductions by domestic airlines in response to the outbreak of the coronavirus and related anticipated decreases in domestic passenger enplanements, and a recent sharp decline in global distribution system (GDS) bookings, a Material Travel Event Disruption is highly likely to have occurred and that our leverage ratio covenant should be suspended as a result. However, under the terms of our loan documents a definitive determination that a Material Travel Event Disruption has occurred requires reference to government statistics that have not yet been published for the relevant period.

 

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in the notes involves risks. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information contained or incorporated by reference in this offering circular, including the information under “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, before making an investment decision. The risks described below are not the only ones facing our company. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business or results of operations in the future. Any of the following risks could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In such case, you may lose all or part of your original investment in the notes.

Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had and is expected to continue to have a significant adverse impact on our business and the travel suppliers on whom our business relies

As described above under “Summary—Recent Developments”, the spread of COVID-19 and the recent developments surrounding the global pandemic are having significantly negative impacts on all aspects of our business. In response to the pandemic, many governments around the world are implementing a variety of measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including travel restrictions and bans, instructions to residents to practice social distancing, quarantine advisories, shelter-in-place orders and required closures of non-essential businesses. These government mandates have had a significant negative impact on the travel industry and many of the travel suppliers on whom our business relies, including airlines and hotels, and forced many of them, including airlines, to pursue cost reduction measures and seek financing, including government financing and support, in order to reduce financial distress and continue operating, and to curtail drastically their service offerings. The pandemic may result in the restructuring or bankruptcy of certain of those travel suppliers, and they may seek to renegotiate the terms of our agreements with them. The pandemic and these measures have significantly adversely affected, and may further affect, consumer sentiment and discretionary spending patterns, economies and financial markets, and our workforce, operations and customers. See “Risk Factors-Risks Related to Our Business-Our Travel Network, Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses depend on maintaining and renewing contracts with their customers and other counterparties.”

To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business, operations, and financial condition and results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section (including those risks described in


our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is incorporated by reference in this offering memorandum), such as those relating to our high level of indebtedness, our need to generate sufficient cash flows to service our indebtedness, and our ability to comply with the covenants contained in the agreements that govern our indebtedness.

Impact on our financial results and prospects

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic conditions and government orders have resulted in a material decrease in consumer spending and an unprecedented decline in transaction volumes in the global travel industry. Our financial results and prospects are largely dependent on these transaction volumes. Although it is impossible to accurately predict the ultimate impact of these developments on our business, our expected results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 have been significantly and negatively impacted, with a material decline in total revenues, net income, cash flow from operations and Adjusted EBITDA as compared to the corresponding period in 2019. This downward trend could continue for an unpredictable period.

Due to the uncertain and rapidly evolving nature of current conditions around the world, we are unable to predict accurately the impact that COVID-19 will have on our business going forward. We currently expect, however, that the COVID-19 outbreak will impact our financial performance for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 much more significantly than it impacted the quarter ended March 31, 2020, primarily because an increasing number of markets and locations will have been subject to the governmental measures and economic disruptions noted above during the entirety of the second quarter (as compared to the first quarter, when the effects of the outbreak were largely limited to China and certain other Asian markets during January 2020 and much of February 2020). With the spread of COVID-19 to Europe, the United States and other regions, we expect the outbreak and its effects to continue to have a significant adverse impact on our business, financial condition and operating results for the duration of the pandemic and during the subsequent economic recovery, which could be an extensive period of time.

Potential impairments of goodwill, long-term investments and long-lived assets; increasing provisions for bad debt including risks associated with travel agencies ability to repay us for bookings that have now cancelled; and increases in cash outlays to refund travel service providers for cancelled bookings

As a result of the deterioration of our business due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are currently evaluating goodwill, long-term investments and long-lived assets for possible impairment. If we determine in any period that our goodwill, long-term investments and/or long-lived assets have experienced a decline in value due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we will record a corresponding impairment charge. In addition, given the volatility in global markets and the financial difficulties faced by many of our travel suppliers, we have increased our provisions for bad debt related to certain of our airline providers and, to a lesser extent, hoteliers. We are closely monitoring positions with travel agencies, as with cancelled bookings exceeding new bookings, refunds could be due to us in the second quarter creating additional bad debt exposure. Moreover, due to the high level of cancelations of existing bookings, we have incurred, and expect to

 

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continue to incur, higher than normal cash outlays to refund travel service providers for cancelled bookings. Any material increase in our provisions for bad debt, and any material increase in cash outlays to travel suppliers would have a corresponding effect on our results of operations, liquidity and related cash flows.

Ongoing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our business and results of operations

The extent of the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on our business, results of operations, cash flows and growth prospects is highly uncertain and will ultimately depend on future developments. These include, but are not limited to, the severity, extent and duration of the global pandemic and its impact on the travel industry and consumer spending more broadly; actions taken by national, state and local governments to contain the disease or treat its impact, including travel restrictions and bans, required closures of non-essential businesses and aid and economic stimulus efforts; the effect of the changes in hiring levels and remote working arrangements that we have implemented on our operations, including the health, productivity and morale of management and our employees, and our ability to maintain our financial reporting processes and related controls; the impact on the financial condition on our partners, and any potential restructurings or bankruptcies of our partners; the impact on our contracts with our partners, including force majeure provisions; our ability to withstand increased cyberattacks that we and many businesses are experiencing; the speed and extent of the recovery across the broader travel ecosystem; and the duration, timing and severity of the impact on customer spending, including any economic recession resulting from the pandemic. The pandemic may continue to expand in regions that have not yet been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak after conditions begin to recover in currently affected regions, which could continue to affect our business. Also, existing restrictions in affected areas could be extended after the virus has been contained in order to avoid relapses, and regions that recover from the outbreak may suffer from a relapse and re-imposition of restrictions. Governmental restrictions and societal norms with respect to travel may change permanently in ways that cannot be predicted and that can change the travel industry in a manner adverse to our business. Additionally, the potential failure of travel service providers and travel agencies (or acquisition of troubled travel service providers or travel agencies) may result in further consolidation of the industry, potentially affecting market dynamics for our services.

Our business is dependent on the ability of consumers to travel, particularly by air. We do not expect economic and operating conditions for our business to improve until consumers are once again willing and able to travel, and our travel suppliers are once again willing and able to serve those consumers. This may not occur until well after the broader global economy begins to improve. Additionally, our business is also dependent on consumer sentiment and discretionary spending patterns. Current economic forecasts predict significant increases in unemployment in the United States and other regions due to the adoption of social distancing and other policies to slow the spread of the virus, which are likely to have a negative impact on consumer discretionary spending, including for the travel industry. Even when economic and operating conditions for our business improve, we cannot predict the long-term effects of the pandemic on our business or the travel industry as a whole. If the travel industry is fundamentally changed by the COVID-19 outbreak in ways that are detrimental to our operating model, our business may continue to be adversely affected even as the broader global economy recovers.

 

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To the extent that the COVID-19 outbreak continues to adversely affect our business and financial performance, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks identified in the “Risk Factors” section of our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, such as those relating to our substantial amount of outstanding indebtedness.

Ratings of the notes may change and affect the market price and marketability of the notes.

Our debt securities are subject to periodic review by one or more independent credit rating agencies, and may be subject to rating and periodic review by additional independent credit rating agencies in the future. Any such ratings are limited in scope, and do not address all material risks relating to an investment in the notes, but rather reflect only the view of the rating agency at the time the rating is issued. An explanation of the significance of such rating may be obtained from such rating agency. We cannot assure you that such credit rating will remain in effect for any given period of time or that any such rating will not be lowered, suspended or withdrawn entirely by the rating agency, if, in such rating agency’s judgment, circumstances so warrant. It is also possible that any such rating may be lowered in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic; or in connection with future events, such as future acquisitions. See—“The COVID-19 outbreak has had and is expected to continue to have a material negative impact on our business.” Holders of notes will have no recourse against us or any other parties in the event of a change in or suspension or withdrawal of any such rating. Any lowering, suspension or withdrawal of such ratings may have an adverse effect on the market prices or marketability of the notes.

Our cash outlay of revenue less expense per month may be different than we have projected if we are unable to realize the anticipated cost savings described in this offering circular.

We are implementing a series of cost savings initiatives that, as described above under ‘‘Summary—Recent Developments—Liquidity and Cost Savings Measures,” we expect to result in the realization of significant net cost savings during 2020. There can be no assurance that we will be able or realize these savings in the anticipated amounts or within the anticipated timeframes.

Our anticipated costs savings involve assumptions, estimates and plans that may not reflect actual events in the future for a variety of reasons, including:

 

   

the costs we incur to implement our cost savings initiatives may be in excess of our current expectations;

 

   

the revenues we realize may be less than our current expectations;

 

   

changed or unanticipated circumstances and events occurring after the date on which such assumptions, estimates and plans were prepared; and

 

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changes resulting from developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions or patterns, and changes in societal norms regarding travel and social distancing.

We undertake no obligation to update or otherwise revise or reconcile these anticipated cost savings or cash outlay whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither our independent auditors nor any other independent auditors, have examined, compiled or performed any procedures with respect to these cost savings or cash outlay estimates, nor have they expressed any opinion, or any other form of assurance on such information or their achievability. Failure to realize the expected cost savings or revenues resulting in the reduction of our cash outlay could have an adverse effect on the combined on our financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our revenue is highly dependent on transaction volumes in the global travel industry, particularly air travel transaction volumes.

Our Travel Network, Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions revenue is largely tied to travel suppliers’ transaction volumes rather than to their unit pricing for an airplane ticket, hotel room or other travel products. This revenue is generally not contractually committed to recur annually under our agreements with our travel suppliers. As a result, our revenue is highly dependent on the global travel industry, particularly air travel from which we derive a substantial amount of our revenue, and directly correlates with global travel, tourism and transportation transaction volumes. Our revenue is therefore highly susceptible to declines in or disruptions to leisure and business travel that may be caused by factors entirely out of our control, and therefore may not recur if these declines or disruptions occur.

Various factors may cause temporary or sustained disruption to leisure and business travel. The impact these disruptions would have on our business depends on the magnitude and duration of such disruption. These factors include, among others:

 

   

general and local economic conditions;

 

   

financial instability of travel suppliers and the impact of any fundamental corporate changes to such travel suppliers, such as airline bankruptcies, consolidations, or suspensions of service on the cost and availability of travel content;

 

   

factors that affect demand for travel such as outbreaks of contagious diseases, including COVID-19, influenza, Zika, Ebola and the MERS virus, increases in fuel prices, government shutdowns, changing attitudes towards the environmental costs of travel and safety concerns;

 

   

political events like acts or threats of terrorism, hostilities, and war;

 

   

inclement weather, natural or man-made disasters; and

 

   

factors that affect supply of travel, such as travel restrictions, regulatory actions, aircraft groundings, or changes to regulations governing airlines and the travel industry, like government sanctions that do or would prohibit doing business with certain state-owned travel suppliers, work stoppages or labor unrest at any of the major airlines, hotels or airports.

 

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Sustained disruptions from COVID-19 have negatively impacted our business, and we expect these negative impacts to continue. See “—The COVID-19 outbreak has had and is expected to continue to have a material negative impact on our business.”

Our success depends on maintaining the integrity of our systems and infrastructure, which may suffer from failures, capacity constraints, business interruptions and forces outside of our control.

We may be unable to maintain and improve the efficiency, reliability and integrity of our systems. Unexpected increases in the volume of our business could exceed system capacity, resulting in service interruptions, outages and delays. These constraints can also lead to the deterioration of our services or impair our ability to process transactions. We occasionally experience system interruptions that make certain of our systems unavailable including, but not limited to, our GDS and the services that our Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses provide to airlines and hotels. In addition, we may occasionally experience system interruptions as we execute our technology strategy, including our cloud migration and mainframe offload activities. System interruptions may prevent us from efficiently providing services to customers or other third parties, which could cause damage to our reputation and result in our losing customers and revenues or cause us to incur litigation and liabilities. Although we have contractually limited our liability for damages caused by outages of our GDS (other than damages caused by our gross negligence or willful misconduct), we cannot guarantee that we will not be subject to lawsuits or other claims for compensation from our customers in connection with such outages for which we may not be indemnified or compensated.

Our systems may also be susceptible to external damage or disruption. Much of the computer and communications hardware upon which we depend is located across multiple data center facilities in a single geographic region. Our systems could be damaged or disrupted by power, hardware, software or telecommunication failures, human errors, natural events including floods, hurricanes, fires, winter storms, earthquakes and tornadoes, terrorism, break-ins, hostilities, war or similar events. Computer viruses, malware, denial of service attacks, attacks on hardware vulnerabilities, physical or electronic break-ins, cybersecurity incidents or other security breaches, and similar disruptions affecting the Internet, telecommunication services or our systems could cause service interruptions or the loss of critical data and could prevent us from providing timely services. See “—Security breaches could expose us to liability and damage our reputation and our business.” Failure to efficiently provide services to customers or other third parties could cause damage to our reputation and result in the loss of customers and revenues, asset impairments, significant recovery costs or litigation and liabilities. Moreover, such risks are likely to increase as we expand our business and as the tools and techniques involved become more sophisticated.

Although we have implemented measures intended to protect certain systems and critical data and provide comprehensive disaster recovery and contingency plans for certain customers that purchase this additional protection, these protections and plans are not in place for all systems. Furthermore, several of our existing critical backup systems are

 

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located in the same metropolitan area as our primary systems and we may not have sufficient disaster recovery tools or resources available, depending on the type or size of the disruption. Disasters affecting our facilities, systems or personnel might be expensive to remedy and could significantly diminish our reputation and our brands, and we may not have adequate insurance to cover such costs.

Customers and other end-users who rely on our software products and services, including our SaaS and hosted offerings, for applications that are integral to their businesses may have a greater sensitivity to product errors and security vulnerabilities than customers for software products generally. Additionally, security breaches that affect third parties upon which we rely, such as travel suppliers, may further expose us to negative publicity, possible liability or regulatory penalties. Events outside our control could cause interruptions in our IT systems, which could have a material adverse effect on our business operations and harm our reputation.

Any inability or failure to adapt to technological developments or the evolving competitive landscape could harm our business operations and competitiveness.

We depend upon the use of sophisticated information technology and systems. Our competitiveness and future results depend on our ability to maintain and make timely and cost-effective enhancements, upgrades and additions to our products, services, technologies and systems in response to new technological developments, industry standards and trends and customer requirements. For example, IATA has promulgated its new distribution capability (“NDC”) standard. Depending on the level of adoption of this standard, our failure to integrate NDC into our technology or anticipate the evolution of next generation retailing and distribution could adversely affect our financial performance. As another example, migration of our enterprise applications and platforms to other hosting environments would cause us to incur substantial costs, and could result in instability and business interruptions, which could materially harm our business.

Adapting to new technological and marketplace developments, such as NDC, may require substantial expenditures and lead time and we cannot guarantee that projected future increases in business volume will actually materialize. We may experience difficulties that could delay or prevent the successful development, marketing and implementation of enhancements, upgrades and additions. Moreover, we may fail to maintain, upgrade or introduce new products, services, technologies and systems as quickly as our competitors or in a cost-effective manner. For example, we must constantly update our GDS with new capabilities to adapt to the changing technological environment and customer needs. However, this process can be costly and time-consuming, and our efforts may not be successful as compared to our competitors in the travel distribution market. Those that we do develop may not achieve acceptance in the marketplace sufficient to generate material revenue or may be rendered obsolete or non-competitive by our competitors’ offerings.

In addition, our competitors are constantly evolving, including increasing their product and service offerings through organic research and development or through strategic acquisitions. For example, one of our competitors, Travelport Worldwide Limited, was acquired by private-equity firms in 2019. There could be uncertainty resulting from this acquisition, including possible changes to Travelport’s product and service offerings.

 

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As a result, we must continue to invest significant resources in research and development in order to continually improve the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of our services and we may be required to make changes to our technology platforms or increase our investment in technology, increase marketing, adjust prices or business models and take other actions, which could affect our financial performance and liquidity.

Travel suppliers’ use of alternative distribution models, such as direct distribution models, could adversely affect our Travel Network business.

Some travel suppliers that provide content to Travel Network, including some of Travel Network’s largest airline customers, have sought to increase usage of direct distribution channels. For example, these travel suppliers are trying to move more consumer traffic to their proprietary websites, and some travel suppliers have explored direct connect initiatives linking their internal reservations systems directly with travel agencies or TMCs, thereby bypassing the GDSs. This direct distribution trend enables them to apply pricing pressure on intermediaries and negotiate travel distribution arrangements that are less favorable to intermediaries. With travel suppliers’ adoption of certain technology solutions over the last decade, including those offered by our Airline Solutions business, air travel suppliers have increased the proportion of direct bookings relative to indirect bookings. In the future, airlines may increase their use of direct distribution, which may cause a material decrease in their use of our GDS. Travel suppliers may also offer travelers advantages through their websites such as special fares and bonus miles, which could make their offerings more attractive than those available through our GDS platform. Similarly, travel suppliers may also seek to encourage travelers’ and travel agencies’ usage of their proprietary booking platforms by selectively increasing the ticket price in our GDS, making our GDS platform’s offerings more expensive than some alternative offerings. For example, we are currently engaged in litigation with the Lufthansa Group in connection with, among other things, a surcharge that the Lufthansa Group has imposed on tickets purchased through three selected GDSs, including Sabre. The Lufthansa Group is seeking declaratory judgment that this surcharge does not violate the terms of its agreement with us, in addition to damages related to the allegations of breach of contract and tortious interference with agency contracts. We deny the allegations and we have filed a counterclaim that asserts the Lufthansa Group’s surcharge is a violation of its agreement and that seeks an order requiring the Lufthansa Group to specifically perform its obligations under the agreement.

In addition, with respect to ancillary products, travel suppliers may choose not to comply with the technical standards that would allow ancillary products to be immediately distributed via intermediaries, thus resulting in a delay before these products become available through our GDS relative to availability through direct distribution. In addition, if enough travel suppliers choose not to develop ancillary products in a standardized way with respect to technical standards our investment in adapting our various systems to enable the sale of ancillary products may not be successful.

Companies with close relationships with end consumers, like Facebook, as well as new entrants introducing new paradigms into the travel industry, such as metasearch engines, like Google, may promote alternative distribution channels to our GDS by diverting consumer traffic away from intermediaries, which may adversely affect our GDS business.

 

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Additionally, technological advancements may allow airlines and hotels to facilitate broader connectivity to and integration with large travel buyers, such that certain airline and hotel offerings could be made available directly to such travel buyers without the involvement of intermediaries such as Travel Network and its competitors.

We rely on the availability and performance of information technology services provided by third parties, including DXC, which manages a significant portion of our systems.

Our businesses are largely dependent on the computer data centers and network systems operated for us by DXC Technology (“DXC”), and its third-party providers, including AT&T, to which DXC outsources certain network services. We also rely on other developers and service providers to maintain and support our global telecommunications infrastructure, including to connect our computer data center and call centers to end-users. Moreover, we outsourced our global enterprise resource planning system to a third-party provider, and any disruption to that outsourced system may negatively impact our business.

Our success is dependent on our ability to maintain effective relationships with these third-party technology and service providers. Some of our agreements with third-party technology and service providers are terminable for cause on short notice and often provide limited recourse for service interruptions. For example, our agreement with DXC provides us with limited indemnification rights. We could face significant additional cost or business disruption if:

 

   

Any of these providers fail to enable us to provide our customers and suppliers with reliable, real-time access to our systems. For example, in 2013, we experienced a significant outage of the Sabre platform due to a failure on the part of one of our service providers. This outage, which affected both our Travel Network business and our Airline Solutions business, lasted several hours and caused significant problems for our customers. Any such future outages could cause damage to our reputation, customer loss and require us to pay compensation to affected customers for which we may not be indemnified or compensated.

 

   

Our arrangements with such providers are terminated or impaired and we cannot find alternative sources of technology or systems support on commercially reasonable terms or on a timely basis. For example, our substantial dependence on DXC for many of our systems makes it difficult for us to switch vendors and makes us more sensitive to changes in DXC’s pricing for its services.

Our Travel Network business is exposed to pricing pressure from travel suppliers.

Travel suppliers continue to look for ways to decrease their costs and to increase their control over distribution. For example, consolidation in the airline industry, the growth of LCC/hybrids and macroeconomic factors, among other things, have driven some airlines to negotiate for lower fees during contract renegotiations, thereby exerting increased pricing pressure on our Travel Network business, which, in turn, negatively affects our revenues and margins. In addition, travel suppliers’ use of alternative distribution channels, such as direct distribution through supplier-operated websites, may also adversely affect our contract renegotiations with these suppliers and negatively impact our transaction fee revenue. For example, as we attempt to renegotiate new agreements with our travel suppliers, they may withhold some or all of their content (fares and associated economic

 

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terms) for distribution exclusively through their direct distribution channels (for example, the relevant airline’s website) or offer travelers more attractive terms for content available through those direct channels after their contracts expire. As a result of these sources of negotiating pressure, we may have to decrease our prices to retain their business. If we are unable to renew our contracts with these travel suppliers on similar economic terms or at all, or if our ability to provide this content is similarly impeded, this would also adversely affect the value of our Travel Network business as a marketplace due to our more limited content. See “—Travel suppliers’ use of alternative distribution models, such as direct distribution models, could adversely affect our Travel Network business.”

Security breaches could expose us to liability and damage our reputation and our business.

We process, store, and transmit large amounts of data, including personally identifiable information (“PII”) and payment card industry data (“PCI”) of our customers, and it is critical to our business strategy that our facilities and infrastructure, including those provided by DXC or other vendors, remain secure and are perceived by the marketplace to be secure. Our infrastructure may be vulnerable to physical or electronic break-ins, computer viruses, or similar disruptive problems.

In addition, we, like most technology companies, are the target of cybercriminals who attempt to compromise our systems. We are subject to and experience threats and intrusions that have to be identified and remediated to protect sensitive information along with our intellectual property and our overall business. To address these threats and intrusions, we have a team of experienced security experts and support from firms that specialize in data security and cybersecurity. We are periodically subject to these threats and intrusions, and sensitive or material information could be compromised as a result. The costs of any investigation of such incidents, as well as any remediation related to these incidents, may be material. As previously disclosed, we became aware of an incident involving unauthorized access to payment information contained in a subset of hotel reservations processed through the Sabre Hospitality Solutions SynXis Central Reservation system (the “HS Central Reservation System”). Our investigation was supported by third party experts, including a leading cybersecurity firm. Our investigation determined that an unauthorized party: obtained access to account credentials that permitted access to a subset of hotel reservations processed through the HS Central Reservation System; used the account credentials to view a credit card summary page on the HS Central Reservation System and access payment card information (although we use encryption, this credential had the right to see unencrypted card data); and first obtained access to payment card information and some other reservation information on August 10, 2016. The last access to payment card information was on March 9, 2017. The unauthorized party was able to access information for certain hotel reservations, including cardholder name; payment card number; card expiration date; and, for a subset of reservations, card security code. The unauthorized party was also able, in some cases, to access certain information such as guest name(s), email, phone number, address, and other information if provided to the HS Central Reservation System. Information such as Social Security, passport, or driver’s license number was not accessed. The investigation did not uncover forensic evidence that the unauthorized party removed any information from the system, but it is a possibility. We took successful measures to ensure this unauthorized access to the HS Central Reservation

 

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System was stopped and is no longer possible. There is no indication that any of our systems beyond the HS Central Reservation System, such as Sabre’s Airline Solutions and Travel Network platforms, were affected or accessed by the unauthorized party. We notified law enforcement and the payment card brands and engaged a PCI forensic investigator at the payment card brands’ request to investigate this incident. We have notified customers and other companies that use or interact with, directly or indirectly, the HS Central Reservation System about the incident. We are also cooperating with various governmental authorities that are investigating this incident. Separately, in November 2017, Sabre Hospitality Solutions observed a pattern of activity that, after further investigation, led it to believe that an unauthorized party improperly obtained access to certain hotel user credentials for purposes of accessing the HS Central Reservation System. We deactivated the compromised accounts and notified law enforcement of this activity. We also notified the payment card brands, and at their request, we have engaged a PCI forensic investigator to investigate this incident. We have not found any evidence of a breach of the network security of the HS Central Reservation System, and we believe that the number of affected reservations represents only a fraction of 1% of the bookings in the HS Central Reservation System. The costs related to these incidents, including any associated penalties assessed by any governmental authority or payment card brand or indemnification obligations to our customers, as well as any other impacts or remediation related to them, may be material. As noted below, we maintain insurance that covers certain aspects of cyber risks, and we continue to work with our insurance carriers in these matters.

Any computer viruses, malware, denial of service attacks, attacks on hardware vulnerabilities, physical or electronic break-ins, cybersecurity incidents, such as the items described above, or other security breach or compromise of the information handled by us or our service providers may jeopardize the security or integrity of information in our computer systems and networks or those of our customers and cause significant interruptions in our and our customers’ operations.

Any systems and processes that we have developed that are designed to protect customer information and prevent data loss and other security breaches cannot provide absolute security. In addition, we may not successfully implement remediation plans to address all potential exposures. It is possible that we may have to expend additional financial and other resources to address these problems. Failure to prevent or mitigate data loss or other security breaches could expose us or our customers to a risk of loss or misuse of such information, cause customers to lose confidence in our data protection measures, damage our reputation, adversely affect our operating results or result in litigation or potential liability for us. While we maintain insurance coverage that may, subject to policy terms and conditions, cover certain aspects of cyber risks, this insurance coverage is subject to a retention amount and may not be applicable to a particular incident or otherwise may be insufficient to cover all our losses beyond any retention. Similarly, we expect to continue to make significant investments in our information technology infrastructure. The implementation of these investments may be more costly or take longer than we anticipate, or could otherwise adversely affect our business operations, which could negatively impact our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

 

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Implementation of software solutions often involves a significant commitment of resources, and any failure to deliver as promised on a significant implementation could adversely affect our business.

In our Travel Network, Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses, the implementation of software solutions often involves a significant commitment of resources and is subject to a number of significant risks over which we may or may not have control. These risks include:

 

   

the features of the implemented software may not meet the expectations or fit the business model of the customer;

 

   

our limited pool of trained experts for implementations cannot quickly and easily be augmented for complex implementation projects, such that resources issues, if not planned and managed effectively, could lead to costly project delays;

 

   

customer-specific factors, such as the stability, functionality, interconnection and scalability of the customer’s pre-existing information technology infrastructure, as well as financial or other circumstances could destabilize, delay or prevent the completion of the implementation process, which, for airline reservations systems, typically takes 12 to 18 months; and

 

   

customers and their partners may not fully or timely perform the actions required to be performed by them to ensure successful implementation, including measures we recommend to safeguard against technical and business risks.

As a result of these and other risks, some of our customers may incur large, unplanned costs in connection with the purchase and installation of our software products. Also, implementation projects could take longer than planned or fail. We may not be able to reduce or eliminate protracted installation or significant additional costs. Significant delays or unsuccessful customer implementation projects could result in cancellation or renegotiation of existing agreements, claims from customers, harm our reputation and negatively impact our operating results.

 

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The travel distribution market is highly competitive, and we are subject to competition from other GDS providers, direct distribution by travel suppliers and new entrants or technologies that may challenge the GDS business model.

The evolution of the global travel and tourism industry, the introduction of new technologies and standards and the expansion of existing technologies in key markets, among other factors, could contribute to an intensification of competition in the business areas and regions in which we operate. Increased competition could require us to increase spending on marketing activities or product development, to decrease our booking or transaction fees and other charges (or defer planned increases in such fees and charges), to increase incentive consideration or take other actions that could harm our business. A GDS has two broad categories of customers: (i) travel suppliers, such as airlines, hotels, car rental brands, rail carriers, cruise lines and tour operators, and (ii) travel buyers, such as online and offline travel agencies, TMCs and corporate travel departments. The competitive positioning of a GDS depends on the success it achieves with both customer categories. Other factors that may affect the competitive success of a GDS include the comprehensiveness, timeliness and accuracy of the travel content offered, the reliability, ease of use and innovativeness of the technology, the perceived value proposition of our GDS by travel suppliers and travel buyers, the incentive consideration provided to travel agencies, the transaction fees charged to travel suppliers and the range of products and services available to travel suppliers and travel buyers. Our GDS competitors could seek to capture market share by offering more differentiated content, products or services, increasing the incentive consideration to travel agencies, or decreasing the transaction fees charged to travel suppliers, which would harm our business to the extent they gain market share from us or force us to respond by lowering our prices or increasing the incentive consideration we provide.

We cannot guarantee that we will be able to compete successfully against our current and future competitors in the travel distribution market, some of which may achieve greater brand recognition than us, have greater financial, marketing, personnel and other resources or be able to secure services and products from travel suppliers on more favorable terms. If we fail to overcome these competitive pressures, we may lose market share and our business may otherwise be negatively affected.

Our ability to maintain and grow our Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses may be negatively affected by competition from other third-party solutions providers and new participants that seek to enter the solutions market.

Our Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses principally face competition from existing third-party solutions providers. We also compete with various point solutions providers on a more limited basis in several discrete functional areas. For our Hospitality Solutions business, we face competition across many aspects of our business, but our primary competitors are in the hospitality central reservation system and property management system (“PMS”) fields.

Factors that may affect the competitive success of our Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses include our pricing structure, our ability to keep pace with technological developments, the effectiveness and reliability of our implementation and system migration processes, our ability to meet a variety of customer specifications, the

 

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effectiveness and reliability of our systems, the cost and efficiency of our system upgrades and our customer support services. Our failure to compete effectively on these and other factors could decrease our market share, adversely impact our pricing or otherwise negatively affect our Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses.

Our ability to recruit, train and retain employees, including our key executive officers and technical employees, is critical to our results of operations and future growth.

Our continued ability to compete effectively depends on our ability to recruit new employees and retain and motivate existing employees, particularly professionals with experience in our industry, information technology and systems, as well as our key executive officers. For example, the specialized skills we require can be difficult and time-consuming to acquire and are often in short supply. There is high demand and competition for well-qualified employees on a global basis, such as software engineers, developers and other technology professionals with specialized knowledge in software development, especially expertise in certain programming languages. This competition affects both our ability to retain key employees and to hire new ones. Similarly, uncertainty in the global political environment may adversely affect our ability to hire and retain key employees. Furthermore, the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on our business could adversely affect our ability to retain key employees and hire new employees. See “—The COVID-19 outbreak has had and is expected to continue to have a material negative impact on our business.” Any of our employees may choose to terminate their employment with us at any time, and a lengthy period of time is required to hire and train replacement employees when such skilled individuals leave the company. Furthermore, changes in our employee population, including our executive team, could impact our results of operations and growth. For example, Sean Menke was elected as President and Chief Executive Officer of Sabre on December 31, 2016. Subsequent to his election, we have announced modifications to our business strategies and increased long-term investment in key areas, such as technology infrastructure, that may continue to have a negative impact in the short term due to expected increases in operating expenses and capital expenditures. If we fail to attract well-qualified employees or to retain or motivate existing employees, our business could be materially hindered by, for example, a delay in our ability to deliver products and services under contract, bring new products and services to market or respond swiftly to customer demands or new offerings from competitors.

 

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Our Travel Network, Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses depend on maintaining and renewing contracts with their customers and other counterparties.

In our Travel Network business, we enter into participating carrier distribution and services agreements with airlines. Our contracts with major carriers typically last for three- to five-year terms and are generally subject to automatic renewal at the end of the term, unless terminated by either party with the required advance notice. Our contracts with smaller airlines generally last for one year and are also subject to automatic renewal at the end of the term, unless terminated by either party with the required advance notice. Airlines are not typically contractually obligated to distribute exclusively through our GDS during the contract term and may terminate their agreements with us upon providing the required advance notice after the expiration of the initial term. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to renew our airline contracts in the future on favorable economic terms or at all. See “—Our Travel Network business is exposed to pricing pressure from travel suppliers.”

We also enter into contracts with travel buyers. Although most of our travel buyer contracts have terms of one to three years, we typically have non-exclusive, five- to ten-year contracts with our major travel agency customers. We also typically have three- to five-year contracts with corporate travel departments, which generally renew automatically unless terminated with the required advance notice. A meaningful portion of our travel buyer agreements, typically representing approximately 15% to 20% of our bookings, are up for renewal in any given year. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to renew our travel buyer agreements in the future on favorable economic terms or at all.

Similarly, our Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses are based on contracts with travel suppliers for a typical duration of three to seven years for airlines and one to five years for hotels, respectively. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to renew our solutions contracts in the future on favorable economic terms or at all.

Additionally, we use several third-party distributor partners and joint ventures to extend our GDS services in EMEA and APAC. The termination of our contractual arrangements with any of these third-party distributor partners and joint ventures could adversely impact our Travel Network business in the relevant markets. See “—We rely on third-party distributor partners and joint ventures to extend our GDS services to certain regions, which exposes us to risks associated with lack of direct management control and potential conflicts of interest” for more information on our relationships with our third-party distributor partners and joint ventures.

Our failure to renew some or all of these agreements on economically favorable terms or at all, or the early termination of these existing contracts, would adversely affect the value of our Travel Network business as a marketplace due to our limited content and distribution reach, which could cause some of our subscribers to move to a competing GDS or use other travel technology providers for the solutions we provide and would materially harm our business, reputation and brand. Our business therefore relies on our ability to renew our agreements with our travel buyers, travel suppliers, third-party distributor partners and joint ventures or developing relationships with new travel buyers and travel suppliers to offset any customer losses.

 

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We are subject to a certain degree of revenue concentration among a portion of our customer base. Because of this concentration among a small number of customers, if an event were to adversely affect one of these customers, it could have a material impact on our business.

Our travel supplier customers may experience financial instability or consolidation, pursue cost reductions, change their distribution model or undergo other changes.

We generate the majority of our revenue and accounts receivable from airlines. We also derive revenue from hotels, car rental brands, rail carriers, cruise lines, tour operators and other suppliers in the travel and tourism industries. Adverse changes in any of these relationships or the inability to enter into new relationships could negatively impact the demand for and competitiveness of our travel products and services. For example, a lack of liquidity in the capital markets or weak economic performance, including as a result of the impacts of COVID-19, may cause our travel suppliers to increase the time they take to pay or to default on their payment obligations, which could lead to a higher level of bad debt expense and negatively affect our results. Any large-scale bankruptcy or other insolvency proceeding of an airline or hospitality supplier could subject our agreements with that customer to rejection or early termination, and, if applicable, result in asset impairments which could be significant. Similarly, any suspension or cessation of operations of an airline or hospitality supplier could negatively affect our results. Because we generally do not require security or collateral from our customers as a condition of sale, our revenues may be subject to credit risk more generally.

Furthermore, supplier consolidation, particularly in the airline industry, could harm our business. Additionally, all of our businesses are highly dependent on airline ticket volumes. Consolidation among airlines could result in the loss of an existing customer and the related fee revenue, decreased airline ticket volumes due to capacity restrictions implemented concurrently with the consolidation, and increased airline concentration and bargaining power to negotiate lower transaction fees. See “—Our Travel Network business is exposed to pricing pressure from travel suppliers.” In addition, consolidation among travel suppliers may result in one or more suppliers refusing to provide certain content to Sabre but rather making it exclusively available on the suppliers’ proprietary websites, hurting the competitive position of our GDS relative to those websites. See “—Travel suppliers’ use of alternative distribution models, such as direct distribution models, could adversely affect our Travel Network business.”

Our Travel Network business depends on relationships with travel buyers.

Our Travel Network business relies on relationships with several large travel buyers, including TMCs and OTAs, to generate a large portion of its revenue through bookings made by these travel companies. This revenue concentration in a relatively small number of travel buyers makes us particularly dependent on factors affecting those companies. For example, if demand for their services decreases, or if a key supplier pulls its content from us, travel buyers may stop utilizing our services or move all or some of their business to competitors or competing channels.

 

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Although our contracts with larger travel agencies often increase the incentive consideration when the travel agency processes a certain volume or percentage of its bookings through our GDS, travel buyers are not contractually required to book exclusively through our GDS during the contract term. Travel buyers may shift bookings to other distribution intermediaries for many reasons, including to avoid becoming overly dependent on a single source of travel content or to increase their bargaining power with GDS providers. Additionally, some regulations allow travel buyers to terminate their contracts earlier.

These risks are exacerbated by increased consolidation among travel agencies and TMCs, including as a result of the impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry, which may ultimately reduce the pool of travel agencies that subscribe to GDSs. We must compete with other GDSs and other competitors for their business by offering competitive upfront incentive consideration, which, due to the strong bargaining power of these large travel buyers, tend to increase in each round of contract renewals. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors Affecting Our Results—Increasing travel agency incentive consideration” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 for more information about our incentive consideration. However, any reduction in transaction fees from travel suppliers due to supplier consolidation or other market forces could limit our ability to increase incentive consideration to travel agencies in a cost-effective manner or otherwise affect our margins.

Our business could be harmed by adverse global and regional economic and political conditions.

Travel expenditures are sensitive to personal and business discretionary spending levels and grow more slowly or decline during economic downturns. We derive the majority of our revenue from the United States and Europe, and we have expanded Travel Network’s presence in APAC. Our geographic concentration in the United States and Europe, as well as our expanded focus in APAC, makes our business potentially vulnerable to economic and political conditions that adversely affect business and leisure travel originating in or traveling to these regions.

The COVID-19 outbreak has significantly and negatively impacted the global economy, including increased unemployment, reduced financial capacity of both business and leisure travelers, diminished liquidity and credit availability, declines in consumer confidence and discretionary income and general uncertainty about economic stability. Furthermore, recent changes in the U.S. political environment have resulted in additional uncertainties with respect to travel restrictions, and the regulatory, tax and economic environment in the United States, which could adversely impact travel demand, our business operations or our financial results. We cannot predict the magnitude, length or recurrence of these impacts to the global economy, which have impacted, and may continue to impact, demand for travel and lead to reduced spending on the services we provide.

 

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We derive the remainder of our revenues from Latin America, the Middle East and Africa and APAC. Any unfavorable economic, political or regulatory developments in these regions could negatively affect our business, such as delays in payment or non-payment of contracts, delays in contract implementation or signing, carrier control issues and increased costs from regulatory changes particularly as parts of our growth strategy involve expanding our presence in these emerging markets. For example, markets that have traditionally had a high level of exports to China, or that have commodities-based economies, have continued to experience slowing or deteriorating economic conditions. These adverse economic conditions may negatively impact our business results in those regions.

Similarly, in Venezuela, due to currency controls that impact the ability of certain of our airline customers operating in the country to obtain U.S. dollars to make timely payments to us, the collection of accounts receivable due to us can be, and has been, delayed. Due to the nature of this delay, we are deferring the recognition of any future revenues until cash is collected in accordance with our policies. Accordingly, our accounts receivable is subject to a general collection risk, as there can be no assurance that we will be paid from such customers in a timely manner, if at all. In response to the political and economic uncertainty in Venezuela, certain airlines have scaled back operations in response to the reduced demand for travel by local consumers as well as the currency controls which has impacted our airline customers in Venezuela.

Voters in the U.K. have approved the exit of that country from the E.U. (“Brexit”), which became effective as of January 31, 2020, and is now in a transition period through December 31, 2020. Brexit and related processes have created significant economic uncertainty in the U.K. and in EMEA, which may negatively impact our business results in those regions. In addition, the terms of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the E.U., once negotiated during the transition period, if at all, could potentially disrupt the markets we serve and the tax jurisdictions in which we operate and adversely change tax benefits or liabilities in these or other jurisdictions, including our ability to obtain Value Added Tax (“VAT”) refunds on transactions between the U.K. and the E.U., and may cause us to lose customers, suppliers, and employees. In addition, Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the U.K. determines which E.U. laws to replace or replicate.

We operate a global business that exposes us to risks associated with international activities.

Our international operations involve risks that are not generally encountered when doing business in the United States. These risks include, but are not limited to:

 

   

business, political and economic instability in foreign locations, including actual or threatened terrorist activities, and military action;

 

   

adverse laws and regulatory requirements, including more comprehensive regulation in the E.U. and the possible effects of Brexit;

 

   

changes in foreign currency exchange rates and financial risk arising from transactions in multiple currencies;

 

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difficulty in developing, managing and staffing international operations because of distance, language and cultural differences;

 

   

disruptions to or delays in the development of communication and transportation services and infrastructure;

 

   

more restrictive data privacy requirements, including the GDPR;

 

   

consumer attitudes, including the preference of customers for local providers;

 

   

increasing labor costs due to high wage inflation in foreign locations, differences in general employment conditions and regulations, and the degree of employee unionization and activism;

 

   

export or trade restrictions or currency controls;

 

   

governmental policies or actions, such as consumer, labor and trade protection measures and travel restrictions;

 

   

taxes, restrictions on foreign investment and limits on the repatriation of funds;

 

   

diminished ability to legally enforce our contractual rights; and

 

   

decreased protection for intellectual property.

Any of the foregoing risks may adversely affect our ability to conduct and grow our business internationally.

We are involved in various legal proceedings which may cause us to incur significant fees, costs and expenses and may result in unfavorable outcomes.

We are involved in various legal proceedings that involve claims for substantial amounts of money or which involve how we conduct our business. See Note 11. Commitments and Contingencies, to our consolidated financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. For example, we are involved in antitrust litigation with US Airways. If we cannot resolve this matter favorably, we could be subject to monetary damages, including treble damages under the antitrust laws and payment of reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs; depending on the amount of any such judgment, if we do not have sufficient cash on hand, we may be required to seek financing from private or public financing. Other parties might likewise seek to benefit from any unfavorable outcome by threatening to bring or actually bringing their own claims against us on the same or similar grounds or utilizing the litigation to seek more favorable contract terms. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has filed a lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction to prevent us from acquiring Farelogix, Inc. (“Farelogix”). Although the trial court did not grant the DOJ’s request, the DOJ has filed its notice of appeal regarding the trial court’s judgment.

In addition, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has blocked our proposed acquisition of Farelogix, Inc. We are also subject to a DOJ antitrust investigation from 2011 relating to the pricing and conduct of the airline distribution industry. We received a civil investigative demand (“CID”) from the DOJ and we are fully cooperating. The DOJ has also sent CIDs to other companies in the travel industry. Based on its findings in the investigation, the DOJ may (i) close the file, (ii) seek a consent decree to remedy issues it believes violate the antitrust laws, or (iii) file suit against us for violating the

 

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antitrust laws, seeking injunctive relief. In addition, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (“EC”) has opened an investigation to assess whether our and Amadeus’ respective agreements with airlines and travel agents may restrict competition in breach of E.U. antitrust rules. There is no legal deadline for the EC to bring an antitrust investigation to an end, and the duration of the investigation is unknown. Depending on the outcome of any of these matters, and the scope of the outcome, the manner in which our airline distribution business is operated could be affected and could potentially force changes to the existing airline distribution business model.

The defense of these actions, as well as any of the other actions described under Note 16. Commitments and Contingencies, to our consolidated financial statements or elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and any other actions brought against us in the future, is time consuming and diverts management’s attention. Even if we are ultimately successful in defending ourselves in such matters, we are likely to incur significant fees, costs and expenses as long as they are ongoing. Any of these consequences could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are exposed to risks associated with acquiring or divesting businesses or business operations.

We have acquired, and, as part of our growth strategy, may in the future acquire, businesses or business operations. We may not be able to identify suitable candidates for additional business combinations and strategic investments, obtain financing on acceptable terms for such transactions, obtain necessary regulatory approvals or otherwise consummate such transactions on acceptable terms, or at all.

For example, we announced on November 14, 2018 that we have entered into an agreement to acquire Farelogix. At closing, Sabre will purchase Farelogix for $360 million, funded by cash on hand and Revolver (as defined in Item 8. Financial Statements, Note 5. Debt to our consolidated financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019) borrowing. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. On August 20, 2019, the DOJ filed a complaint in federal court in the District of Delaware, seeking a permanent injunction to prevent Sabre from acquiring Farelogix. Although the trial court did not grant the DOJ’s request, the DOJ has filed its notice of appeal regarding the trial court’s judgment. In addition, the CMA has blocked our acquisition of Farelogix. Sabre and Farelogix may fail to secure the requisite approvals in a timely manner or on terms desired or anticipated, and the acquisition of Farelogix may not close in the anticipated time frame, if at all. Under the acquisition agreement, as amended, we have agreed to advance certain attorneys’ fees incurred by Farelogix in responding to certain governmental reviews of the acquisition and in defending against certain antitrust proceedings, which have totaled $25 million for the year as of March 31, 2020. These advances will be applied against the purchase price upon closing. The acquisition agreement, as amended, contains certain customary termination rights, including the right of either party to terminate the acquisition agreement if the acquisition has not occurred by April 30, 2020. In the event the acquisition agreement is terminated, we could be obligated to pay Farelogix up to an additional $21 million, either in the form of additional advances or in the form of a termination fee depending on the circumstances.

 

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Any acquisitions that we are able to identify and complete may also involve a number of risks, including our inability to successfully or profitably integrate, operate, maintain and manage our newly acquired operations or employees; the diversion of our management’s attention from our existing business to integrate operations and personnel; possible material adverse effects on our results of operations during the integration process; becoming subject to contingent or other liabilities, including liabilities arising from events or conduct predating the acquisition that were not known to us at the time of the acquisition; and our possible inability to achieve the intended objectives of the acquisition, including the inability to achieve anticipated business or financial results, cost savings and synergies. Acquisitions may also have unanticipated tax, regulatory and accounting ramifications, including recording goodwill and nonamortizable intangible assets that are subject to impairment testing on a regular basis and potential periodic impairment charges and incurring amortization expenses related to certain intangible assets. To consummate any of these acquisitions, we may need to raise external funds through the sale of equity or the issuance of debt in the capital markets or through private placements, which may affect our liquidity and may dilute the value of our common stock. See “—We have a significant amount of indebtedness, which could adversely affect our cash flow and our ability to operate our business and to fulfill our obligations under our indebtedness.”

We have also divested, and may in the future divest, businesses or business operations. Any divestitures may involve a number of risks, including the diversion of management’s attention, significant costs and expenses, the loss of customer relationships and cash flow, and the disruption of the affected business or business operations. Failure to timely complete or to consummate a divestiture may negatively affect the valuation of the affected business or business operations or result in restructuring charges.

Any failure to comply with regulations or any changes in such regulations governing our businesses could adversely affect us.

Parts of our business operate in regulated industries and could be adversely affected by unfavorable changes in or the enactment of new laws, rules or regulations applicable to us, which could decrease demand for our products and services, increase costs or subject us to additional liabilities. Moreover, regulatory authorities have relatively broad discretion to grant, renew and revoke licenses and approvals and to implement or interpret regulations. Accordingly, these regulatory authorities could prevent or temporarily suspend us from carrying on some or all of our activities or otherwise penalize us if our practices were found not to comply with the applicable regulatory or licensing requirements or any interpretation of such requirements by the regulatory authority. In addition, we are subject to or affected by international, federal, state and local laws, regulations and policies, which are constantly subject to change. These include data protection and privacy legislation and regulations, as well as legislation and regulations affecting issues such as: trade sanctions, exports of technology, antitrust, anticorruption, telecommunications and e-commerce. Our failure to comply with any of these requirements, interpretations, legislation or regulations could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

Further, the United States has imposed economic sanctions, and could impose further sanctions in the future, that affect transactions with designated countries, including but not limited to, Cuba, Iran, Crimea region, North Korea and Syria, and nationals and others of those countries, and certain specifically targeted individuals and entities engaged in

 

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conduct detrimental to U.S. national security interests. These sanctions are administered by OFAC and are typically known as the OFAC regulations. These regulations are extensive and complex, and they differ from one sanctions regime to another. Failure to comply with these regulations could subject us to legal and reputational consequences, including civil and criminal penalties.

We have GDS contracts with carriers that fly to Cuba, Iran, Crimea region, North Korea and Syria but are based outside of those countries and are not owned by those governments or nationals of those governments. With respect to Iran, Sudan, North Korea and Syria we believe that our activities are designed to comply with certain information and travel-related exemptions. With respect to Cuba, we have advised OFAC that customers outside the United States we display on the Sabre GDS flight information for, and support booking and ticketing of, services of non-Cuban airlines that offer service to Cuba. Based on advice of counsel, we believe these activities to fall under an exemption from OFAC regulations applicable to the transmission of information and informational materials and transactions related thereto.

We believe that our activities with respect to these countries are known to OFAC. We note, however, that OFAC regulations and related interpretive guidance are complex and subject to varying interpretations. Due to this complexity, OFAC’s interpretation of its own regulations and guidance vary on a case to case basis. As a result, we cannot provide any guarantees that OFAC will not challenge any of our activities in the future, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

In Europe, GDS regulations or interpretations thereof may increase our cost of doing business or lower our revenues, limit our ability to sell marketing data, impact relationships with travel buyers, airlines, rail carriers or others, impair the enforceability of existing agreements with travel buyers and other users of our system, prohibit or limit us from offering services or products, or limit our ability to establish or change fees. Although regulations specifically governing GDSs have been lifted in the United States, they remain subject to general regulation regarding unfair trade practices by the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”). In addition, continued regulation of GDSs in the E.U. and elsewhere could also create the operational challenge of supporting different products, services and business practices to conform to the different regulatory regimes. We do not currently maintain a central database of all regulatory requirements affecting our worldwide operations and, as a result, the risk of non-compliance with the laws and regulations described above is heightened. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations may subject us to fines, penalties and potential criminal violations. Any changes to these laws or regulations or any new laws or regulations may make it more difficult for us to operate our business.

Our collection, processing, storage, use and transmission of personal data could give rise to liabilities as a result of governmental regulation, conflicting legal requirements, differing views on data privacy or security breaches.

We collect, process, store, use and transmit a large volume of personal data on a daily basis, including, for example, to process travel transactions for our customers and to deliver other travel-related products and services. Personal data is increasingly subject to legal and regulatory protections around the world, which vary widely in approach and which possibly

 

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conflict with one another. In recent years, for example, U.S. legislators and regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, as well as U.S. states, have increased their focus on protecting personal data by law and regulation, and have increased enforcement actions for violations of privacy and data protection requirements. The GDPR, a data protection law adopted by the European Commission, went into effect on May 25, 2018, and the CCPA went into effect on January 1, 2020. These data protection laws and regulations are intended to protect the privacy and security of personal data, including credit card information that is collected, processed and transmitted in or from the relevant jurisdiction. Implementation of and compliance with these laws and regulations may be more costly or take longer than we anticipate, or could otherwise adversely affect our business operations, which could negatively impact our financial position or cash flows. Additionally, media coverage of data breaches has escalated, in part because of the increased number of enforcement actions, investigations and lawsuits. As this focus and attention on privacy and data protection increases, we also risk exposure to potential liabilities and costs resulting from the compliance with, or any failure to comply with applicable legal requirements, conflicts among these legal requirements or differences in approaches to privacy and security of travel data. Furthermore, various countries, including Russia, have implemented legislation requiring the storage of travel or other personal data locally. Our business could be materially adversely affected by our inability, or the inability of our vendors who receive personal data from us, to comply with legal obligations regarding the use of personal data, new data handling or localization requirements that conflict with or negatively impact our business practices. In addition, our agreements with customers may also require that we indemnify the customer for liability arising from data breaches under the terms of our agreements with these customers. These indemnification obligations could be significant and may exceed the limits of any applicable insurance policy we maintain. See “—Security breaches could expose us to liability and damage our reputation and our business.”

We are exposed to risks associated with PCI compliance.

The PCI Data Security Standard (“PCI DSS”) is a specific set of comprehensive security standards required by credit card brands for enhancing payment account data security, including but not limited to requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, and software design. PCI DSS compliance is required in order to maintain credit card processing services. The cost of compliance with PCI DSS is significant and may increase as the requirements change. We are tested periodically for assurance and successfully completed our last annual assessment in December 2019. Compliance does not guarantee a completely secure environment and notwithstanding the results of this assessment there can be no assurance that payment card brands will not request further compliance assessments or set forth additional requirements to maintain access to credit card processing services. See “—Security breaches could expose us to liability and damage our reputation and our business.” Compliance is an ongoing effort and the requirements evolve as new threats are identified. In the event that we were to lose PCI DSS compliance status (or fail to renew compliance under a future version of the PCI DSS), we could be exposed to increased operating costs, fines and penalties and, in extreme circumstances, may have our credit card processing privileges revoked, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

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Intellectual property infringement actions against us could be costly and time consuming to defend and may result in business harm if we are unsuccessful in our defense.

Third parties may assert, including by means of counterclaims against us as a result of the assertion of our intellectual property rights, that our products, services or technology, or the operation of our business, violate their intellectual property rights. We are currently subject to such assertions, including patent infringement claims, and may be subject to such assertions in the future. These assertions may also be made against our customers who may seek indemnification from us. In the ordinary course of business, we enter into agreements that contain indemnity obligations whereby we are required to indemnify our customers against these assertions arising from our customers’ usage of our products, services or technology. As the competition in our industry increases and the functionality of technology offerings further overlaps, these claims and counterclaims could become more common. We cannot be certain that we do not or will not infringe third parties’ intellectual property rights.

Legal proceedings involving intellectual property rights are highly uncertain and can involve complex legal and scientific questions. Any intellectual property claim against us, regardless of its merit, could result in significant liabilities to our business, and can be expensive and time consuming to defend. Depending on the nature of such claims, our businesses may be disrupted, our management’s attention and other company resources may be diverted and we may be required to redesign, reengineer or rebrand our products and services, if feasible, to stop offering certain products and services or to enter into royalty or licensing agreements in order to obtain the rights to use necessary technologies, which may not be available on terms acceptable to us, if at all, and may result in a decrease of our competitive advantage. Our failure to prevail in such matters could result in loss of intellectual property rights, judgments awarding substantial damages, including possible treble damages and attorneys’ fees, and injunctive or other equitable relief against us. If we are held liable, we may be unable to exploit some or all of our intellectual property rights or technology. Even if we are not held liable, we may choose to settle claims by making a monetary payment or by granting a license to intellectual property rights that we otherwise would not license. Further, judgments may result in loss of reputation, may force us to take costly remediation actions, delay selling our products and offering our services, reduce features or functionality in our services or products, or cease such activities altogether. Insurance may not cover or be insufficient for any such claim.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property effectively, which may allow competitors to duplicate our products and services.

Our success and competitiveness depend, in part, upon our technologies and other intellectual property, including our brands. Among our significant assets are our proprietary and licensed software and other proprietary information and intellectual property rights. We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark and patent laws, laws protecting trade secrets, confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions to protect these assets both in the United States and in foreign countries. The laws of some jurisdictions may provide less protection for our technologies and other intellectual property assets than the laws of the United States.

 

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There is no certainty that our intellectual property rights will provide us with substantial protection or commercial benefit. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property, some of our innovations may not be protectable, and our intellectual property rights may offer insufficient protection from competition or unauthorized use, lapse or expire, be challenged, narrowed, invalidated, or misappropriated by third parties, or be deemed unenforceable or abandoned, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and the legal remedies available to us may not adequately compensate us. We cannot be certain that others will not independently develop, design around, or otherwise acquire equivalent or superior technology or intellectual property rights.

 

   

While we take reasonable steps to protect our brands and trademarks, we may not be successful in maintaining or defending our brands or preventing third parties from adopting similar brands. If our competitors infringe our principal trademarks, our brands may become diluted or if our competitors introduce brands or products that cause confusion with our brands or products in the marketplace, the value that our consumers associate with our brands may become diminished, which could negatively impact revenue.

 

   

Our patent applications may not be granted, and the patents we own could be challenged, invalidated, narrowed or circumvented by others and may not be of sufficient scope or strength to provide us with any meaningful protection or commercial advantage. Once our patents expire, or if they are invalidated, narrowed or circumvented, our competitors may be able to utilize the technology protected by our patents which may adversely affect our business.

 

   

Although we rely on copyright laws to protect the works of authorship created by us, we do not generally register the copyrights in our copyrightable works where such registration is permitted. Copyrights of U.S. origin must be registered before the copyright owner may bring an infringement suit in the United States. Accordingly, if one of our unregistered copyrights of U.S. origin is infringed by a third party, we will need to register the copyright before we can file an infringement suit in the United States, and our remedies in any such infringement suit may be limited.

 

   

We use reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets. However, protecting trade secrets can be difficult and our efforts may provide inadequate protection to prevent unauthorized use, misappropriation, or disclosure of our trade secrets, know how, or other proprietary information.

 

   

We also rely on our domain names to conduct our online businesses. While we use reasonable efforts to protect and maintain our domain names, if we fail to do so the domain names may become available to others. Further, the regulatory bodies that oversee domain name registration may change their regulations in a way that adversely affects our ability to register and use certain domain names.

We license software and other intellectual property from third parties. These licensors may breach or otherwise fail to perform their obligations or claim that we have breached or otherwise attempt to terminate their license agreements with us. We also rely on license agreements to allow third parties to use our intellectual property rights, including our software, but there is no guarantee that our licensees will abide by the terms of our license agreements or that the terms of our agreements will always be enforceable.

 

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In addition, policing unauthorized use of and enforcing intellectual property can be difficult and expensive. The fact that we have intellectual property rights, including registered intellectual property rights, may not guarantee success in our attempts to enforce these rights against third parties. Besides general litigation risks, changes in, or interpretations of, intellectual property laws may compromise our ability to enforce our rights. We may not be aware of infringement or misappropriation or elect not to seek to prevent it. Our decisions may be based on a variety of factors, such as costs and benefits of taking action, and contextual business, legal, and other issues. Any inability to adequately protect our intellectual property on a cost-effective basis could harm our business.

We use open source software in our solutions that may subject our software solutions to general release or require us to re-engineer our solutions.

We use open source software in our solutions and may use more open source software in the future. From time to time, there have been claims by companies claiming ownership of software that was previously thought to be open source and that was incorporated by other companies into their products. As a result, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the open source software and that we license these modifications or derivative works under the terms of a particular open source license or other license granting third parties certain rights of further use. If we combine or, in some cases, link our proprietary software solutions with or to open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain of the open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software solutions or license such proprietary solutions under the terms of a particular open source license or other license granting third parties certain rights of further use. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on origin of the software. In addition, open source license terms may be ambiguous and many of the risks associated with usage of open source cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect our business. If we were found to have inappropriately used open source software, we may be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our software, to re-engineer our solutions, to discontinue the sale of our solutions in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis or take other remedial action that may divert resources away from our development efforts, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

We rely on the value of our brands, which may be damaged by a number of factors, some of which are out of our control.

We believe that maintaining and expanding our portfolio of product and service brands are important aspects of our efforts to attract and expand our customer base. Our brands may be negatively impacted by, among other things, unreliable service levels from third-party providers, customers’ inability to properly interface their applications with our technology, the loss or unauthorized disclosure of personal data, including PCI or PII, or

 

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other bad publicity due to litigation, regulatory concerns or otherwise relating to our business. See “—Security breaches could expose us to liability and damage our reputation and our business.” Any inability to maintain or enhance awareness of our brands among our existing and target customers could negatively affect our current and future business prospects.

Maintaining and improving our financial controls and the requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members.

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) and The NASDAQ Stock Market (“NASDAQ”) rules. The requirements of these rules and regulations have increased and will continue to significantly increase our legal and financial compliance costs, including costs associated with the hiring of additional personnel, making some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly, and may also place undue strain on our personnel, systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Ensuring that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place, as well as maintaining these controls and procedures, is a costly and time-consuming effort that needs to be re-evaluated frequently. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Section 404”) requires that we annually evaluate our internal control over financial reporting to enable management to report on, and our independent auditors to audit as of the end of each fiscal year the effectiveness of those controls. In connection with the Section 404 requirements, both we and our independent registered public accounting firm test our internal controls and could, as part of that documentation and testing, identify material weaknesses, significant deficiencies or other areas for further attention or improvement.

Implementing any appropriate changes to our internal controls may require specific compliance training for our directors, officers and employees, require the hiring of additional finance, accounting and other personnel, entail substantial costs to modify our existing accounting systems, or any manual systems or processes, and take a significant period of time to complete. These changes may not, however, be effective in maintaining the adequacy of our internal controls, and any failure to maintain that adequacy, or consequent inability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, could increase our operating costs and could materially impair our ability to operate our business. Moreover, adequate internal controls are necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and are important to help prevent fraud. As a result, our failure to satisfy the requirements of Section 404 on a timely basis could result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could cause the market value of our common stock to decline.

 

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Various rules and regulations applicable to public companies make it more difficult and more expensive for us to maintain directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to maintain coverage. If we are unable to maintain adequate directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, our ability to recruit and retain qualified officers and directors, especially those directors who may be deemed independent for purposes of the NASDAQ rules, will be significantly curtailed.

We rely on third-party distributor partners and joint ventures to extend our GDS services to certain regions, which exposes us to risks associated with lack of direct management control and potential conflicts of interest.

Our Travel Network business utilizes third-party distributor partners and joint ventures to extend our GDS services in EMEA and APAC. We work with these partners to establish and maintain commercial and customer service relationships with both travel suppliers and travel buyers. Since, in many cases, we do not exercise full management control over their day-to-day operations, the success of their marketing efforts and the quality of the services they provide are beyond our control. If these partners do not meet our standards for distribution, our reputation may suffer materially, and sales in those regions could decline significantly. Any interruption in these third-party services, deterioration in their performance or termination of our contractual arrangements with them could negatively impact our ability to extend our GDS services in the relevant markets. In addition, our business may be harmed due to potential conflicts of interest with our joint venture partners.

We may have higher than anticipated tax liabilities.

We are subject to a variety of taxes in many jurisdictions globally, including income taxes in the United States at the federal, state and local levels, and in many other countries. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. We operate in numerous countries where our income tax returns are subject to audit and adjustment by local tax authorities. Because we operate globally, the nature of the uncertain tax positions is often very complex and subject to change, and the amounts at issue can be substantial. It is inherently difficult and subjective to estimate such amounts, as we have to determine the probability of various possible outcomes. We re-evaluate uncertain tax positions on a quarterly basis. This evaluation is based on factors including, but not limited to, changes in facts or circumstances, changes in tax law, effectively settled issues under audit and new audit activity. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination of tax audits could be materially different from our historical income tax provisions and accruals. Our effective tax rate may change from year to year based on changes in the mix of activities and income allocated or earned among various jurisdictions, tax laws in these jurisdictions, tax treaties between countries, our eligibility for benefits under those tax treaties, and the estimated values of deferred tax assets and liabilities. Such changes could result in an increase in the effective tax rate applicable to all or a portion of our income which would reduce our profitability.

We establish reserves for our potential liability for U.S. and non-U.S. taxes, including sales, occupancy and VAT, consistent with applicable accounting principles and in light of all current facts and circumstances. We also establish reserves when required relating to the

 

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collection of refunds related to value-added taxes, which are subject to audit and collection risks in various countries. Historically our right to recover certain value-added tax receivables associated with our European businesses has been questioned by tax authorities. These reserves represent our best estimate of our contingent liability for taxes. The interpretation of tax laws and the determination of any potential liability under those laws are complex, and the amount of our liability may exceed our established reserves.

We consider the undistributed capital investments in our foreign subsidiaries to be indefinitely reinvested as of December 31, 2019 and, accordingly, have not provided deferred taxes on any outside basis differences.

New tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time and existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations and ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. These events could require us to pay additional tax amounts on a prospective or retroactive basis, as well as require us to pay fees, penalties or interest for past amounts deemed to be due. New, changed, modified or newly interpreted or applied laws could also increase our compliance, operating and other costs, as well as the costs of our products and services. Several countries, primarily in Europe, and the European Commission have proposed or adopted taxes on revenue earned by multinational corporations in certain “digital economy” sectors from activities linked to the user-based activity of their residents. These proposals have generally been labeled as “digital services taxes” (“DSTs”). We continue to evaluate the potential effects that the DST may have on our operations, cash flows and results of operations. The future impact of the DST, including on our global operations, is uncertain, and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We may not have sufficient insurance to cover our liability in pending litigation claims and future claims either due to coverage limits or as a result of insurance carriers seeking to deny coverage of such claims, which in either case could expose us to significant liabilities.

We maintain third-party insurance coverage against various liability risks, including securities, stockholders, derivative, ERISA, and product liability claims, as well as other claims that form the basis of litigation matters pending against us. We believe these insurance programs are an effective way to protect our assets against liability risks. However, the potential liabilities associated with litigation matters pending against us, or that could arise in the future, could exceed the coverage provided by such programs. In addition, our insurance carriers have in the past sought or may in the future seek to rescind or deny coverage with respect to pending claims or lawsuits, completed investigations or pending or future investigations and other legal actions against us. If we do not have sufficient coverage under our policies, or if the insurance companies are successful in rescinding or denying coverage, we may be required to make material payments in connection with third-party claims.

 

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Defects in our products may subject us to significant warranty liabilities or product liability claims and we may have insufficient product liability insurance to pay material uninsured claims.

Our business exposes us to the risk of product liability claims that are inherent in software development. We may inadvertently create defective software or supply our customers with defective software or software components that we acquire from third parties, which could result in personal injury, property damage or other liabilities, and may result in warranty or product liability claims brought against us, our travel supplier customers or third parties.

Under our customer agreements, we generally must indemnify our customers for liability arising from intellectual property infringement claims with respect to our software. These indemnifications could be significant and we may not have adequate insurance coverage to protect us against all claims. The combination of our insurance coverage, cash flows and reserves may not be adequate to satisfy product liabilities we may incur in the future. Even meritless claims could subject us to adverse publicity, hinder us from securing insurance coverage in the future, require us to incur significant legal fees, decrease demand for any products that we successfully develop, divert management’s attention, and force us to limit or forgo further development and commercialization of these products. The cost of any product liability litigation or other proceedings, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial.

We may recognize impairments on long-lived assets, including goodwill and other intangible assets, or recognize impairments on our equity method investments.

Our consolidated balance sheet at December 31, 2019 contained goodwill and intangible assets, net totaling $3.2 billion. Future acquisitions that result in the recognition of additional goodwill and intangible assets would cause an increase in these types of assets. We do not amortize goodwill and intangible assets that are determined to have indefinite useful lives, but we amortize definite-lived intangible assets on a straight-line basis over their useful economic lives, which range from four to thirty years, depending on classification.

We evaluate goodwill for impairment on an annual basis or earlier if impairment indicators exist and we evaluate definite-lived intangible assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of definite-lived intangible assets used in combination to generate cash flows largely independent of other assets may not be recoverable. We record an impairment charge whenever the estimated fair value of our reporting units or of such intangible assets is less than its carrying value.

The fair values used in our impairment evaluation are estimated using a combined approach based upon discounted future cash flow projections and observed market multiples for comparable businesses. Changes in estimates based on changes in risk-adjusted discount rates, future booking and transaction volume levels, future price levels, rates of growth in our consumer and corporate direct booking businesses, rates of increase in operating expenses, cost of revenue and taxes could result in material impairment charges.

 

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Our pension plan obligations are currently unfunded, and we may have to make significant cash contributions to our plans, which could reduce the cash available for our business.

Our pension plans in the aggregate are estimated to be unfunded by $125 million as of December 31, 2019. With approximately 4,800 participants in our pension plans, we incur substantial costs relating to pension benefits, which can vary substantially as a result of changes in healthcare laws and costs, volatility in investment returns on pension plan assets and changes in discount rates used to calculate related liabilities. Our estimates of liabilities and expenses for pension benefits require the use of assumptions, including assumptions relating to the rate used to discount the future estimated liability, the rate of return on plan assets, inflation and several assumptions relating to the employee workforce (medical costs, retirement age and mortality). Actual results may differ, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition or results of operations. Future volatility and disruption in the stock markets could cause a decline in the asset values of our pension plans. In addition, a decrease in the discount rate used to determine minimum funding requirements could result in increased future contributions. If either occurs, we may need to make additional pension contributions above what is currently estimated, which could reduce the cash available for our businesses.

We may require more cash than we generate in our operating activities, and additional funding on reasonable terms or at all may not be available.

We cannot guarantee that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations to fund our capital investment requirements or other liquidity needs, particularly following the COVID-19 outbreak. See “—The COVID-19 outbreak has had and is expected to continue to have a material negative impact on our business.” Moreover, because we are a holding company with no material direct operations, we depend on loans, dividends and other payments from our subsidiaries to generate the funds necessary to meet our financial obligations. Our subsidiaries are legally distinct from us and may be prohibited or restricted from paying dividends or otherwise making funds available to us under certain conditions.

As a result, we may be required to finance our cash needs through bank loans, additional debt financing, public or private equity offerings or otherwise. Our ability to arrange financing and the cost of such financing are dependent on numerous factors, including but not limited to general economic and capital market conditions, the availability of credit from banks or other lenders, investor confidence in us, and our results of operations.

There can be no assurance that financing will be available on terms favorable to us or at all, which could force us to delay, reduce or abandon our growth strategy, increase our financing costs, or both. Additional funding from debt financings may make it more difficult for us to operate our business because a portion of our cash generated from internal operations would be used to make principal and interest payments on the indebtedness and we may be obligated to abide by restrictive covenants contained in the debt financing agreements, which may, among other things, limit our ability to make business decisions and further limit our ability to pay dividends.

 

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In addition, any downgrade of our debt ratings by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investor Service 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. Furthermore, raising capital through public or private sales of equity to finance acquisitions or expansion could cause earnings or ownership dilution to your shareholding interests in our company.

We have a significant amount of indebtedness, which could adversely affect our cash flow and our ability to operate our business and to fulfill our obligations under our indebtedness.

We have a significant amount of indebtedness. Our substantial level of indebtedness increases the possibility that we may not generate enough cash flow from operations to pay, when due, the principal of, interest on or other amounts due in respect of, these obligations. Other risks relating to our long-term indebtedness include:

 

   

increased vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;

 

   

higher interest expense if interest rates increase on our floating rate borrowings and our hedging strategies do not effectively mitigate the effects of these increases;

 

   

need to divert a significant portion of our cash flow from operations to payments on our indebtedness, thereby reducing the availability of cash to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, investments and other general corporate purposes;

 

   

limited ability to obtain additional financing, on terms we find acceptable, if needed, for working capital, capital expenditures, expansion plans and other investments, which may adversely affect our ability to implement our business strategy;

 

   

limited flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our businesses and the markets in which we operate or to take advantage of market opportunities; and

 

   

a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less debt.

In addition, it is possible that we may need to incur additional indebtedness in the future in the ordinary course of business. The terms of our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement and the indentures governing our senior secured notes due in 2023 allow us to incur additional debt subject to certain limitations. If new debt is added to current debt levels, the risks described above could intensify. In addition, our inability to maintain certain leverage ratios could result in acceleration of a portion of our debt obligations and could cause us to be in default if we are unable to repay the accelerated obligations.

We are exposed to interest rate fluctuations.

Our floating rate indebtedness exposes us to fluctuations in prevailing interest rates. To reduce the impact of large fluctuations in interest rates, we typically hedge a portion of our interest rate risk by entering into derivative agreements with financial institutions. Our exposure to interest rates relates primarily to our borrowings under the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement.

 

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The derivative agreements that we use to manage the risk associated with fluctuations in interest rates may not be able to eliminate the exposure to these changes. Interest rates are sensitive to numerous factors outside of our control, such as government and central bank monetary policy in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Depending on the size of the exposures and the relative movements of interest rates, if we choose not to hedge or fail to effectively hedge our exposure, we could experience a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

As of December 31, 2019, we had outstanding approximately $2.3 billion of variable debt that is indexed to the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority announced its intention to phase out LIBOR by the end of 2021. It is not possible to predict the effect of any changes in the methods by which LIBOR is determined or regulatory activity related to LIBOR’s phaseout. Any of these developments could cause LIBOR to perform differently than in the past or cease to exist. If a published U.S. dollar LIBOR rate is unavailable, the interest rates on our debt indexed to LIBOR will be determined using various alternative methods set forth in our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, any of which could result in interest obligations that are more than or that do not otherwise correlate over time with the payments that would have been made on this debt if U.S. dollar LIBOR were available in its current form. Any of these proposals or consequences could have a material adverse effect on our financing costs. Moreover, our interest rate swap agreements designated in a hedging relationship utilize one-month LIBOR and have maturities that extend through 2021. See Note 9. Derivatives, to our consolidated financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019. The phaseout of the LIBOR may adversely affect our assessment of effectiveness or measurement of ineffectiveness for accounting purposes.

We are exposed to exchange rate fluctuations.

We conduct various operations outside the United States, primarily in APAC, Europe and Latin America. During the year ended December 31, 2019, foreign currency operations included $246 million of revenue and $572 million of operating expenses, representing approximately 6% and 16% of our total revenue and operating expenses, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2018, foreign currency operations included $264 million of revenue and $583 million of operating expenses, representing approximately 7% and 18% of our total revenue and operating expenses, respectively. Our most significant foreign currency operating expenses are in the Euro, representing approximately 7% of our operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. As a result, we face exposure to movements in currency exchange rates. These exposures include but are not limited to:

 

   

re-measurement gains and losses from changes in the value of foreign denominated assets and liabilities;

 

   

translation gains and losses on foreign subsidiary financial results that are translated into U.S. dollars, our functional currency, upon consolidation;

 

   

planning risk related to changes in exchange rates between the time we prepare our annual and quarterly forecasts and when actual results occur; and

 

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the impact of relative exchange rate movements on cross-border travel, principally travel between Europe and the United States.

Depending on the size of the exposures and the relative movements of exchange rates, if we choose not to hedge or fail to hedge effectively our exposure, we could experience a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. As we have seen in prior periods, in the event of severe volatility in exchange rates, these exposures can increase, and the impact on our results of operations and financial condition can be more pronounced. In addition, the current environment and the increasingly global nature of our business have made hedging these exposures more complex and costly.

To reduce the impact of this earnings volatility, we hedge our foreign currency exposure by entering into foreign currency forward contracts on several of our largest foreign currency exposures, including the Singaporean Dollar, the British Pound Sterling, the Polish Zloty, the Australian Dollar, the Indian Rupee, and the Swedish Krona. Although we have increased and may continue to increase the scope, complexity and duration of our foreign exchange risk management strategy, our current or future hedging activities may not sufficiently protect us from the adverse effects of currency exchange rate movements. Moreover, 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 hedging activities.

The terms of our debt covenants could limit our discretion in operating our business and any failure to comply with such covenants could result in the default of all of our debt.

The agreements governing our indebtedness contain and the agreements governing our future indebtedness will likely contain various covenants, including those that restrict our or our subsidiaries’ ability to, among other things:

 

   

incur liens on our property, assets and revenue;

 

   

borrow money, and guarantee or provide other support for the indebtedness of third parties;

 

   

pay dividends or make other distributions on, redeem or repurchase our capital stock;

 

   

prepay, redeem or repurchase certain of our indebtedness;

 

   

enter into certain change of control transactions;

 

   

make investments in entities that we do not control, including joint ventures;

 

   

enter into certain asset sale transactions, including divestiture of certain company assets and divestiture of capital stock of wholly-owned subsidiaries;

 

   

enter into certain transactions with affiliates;

 

   

enter into secured financing arrangements;

 

   

enter into sale and leaseback transactions;

 

   

change our fiscal year; and

 

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enter into substantially different lines of business.

These covenants may limit our ability to effectively operate our businesses or maximize stockholder value. In addition, our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement requires that we meet certain financial tests, including the maintenance of a leverage ratio and a minimum net worth. Our ability to satisfy these tests may be affected by factors and events beyond our control, and we may be unable to meet such tests in the future.

Any failure to comply with the restrictions of our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, the indentures governing our senior secured notes due 2023 or any agreement governing our other indebtedness may result in an event of default under those agreements. Such default may allow the creditors to accelerate the related debt, which may trigger cross-acceleration or cross-default provisions in other debt. In addition, lenders may be able to terminate any commitments they had made to supply us with further funds.

The market price of our common stock could decline due to the large number of outstanding shares of our common stock eligible for future sale.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market in future offerings, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. These sales could also make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future, at a time and price that we deem appropriate. In addition, the additional sale of our common stock by our officers or directors in the public market, or the perception that these sales may occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

We may issue shares of our common stock or other securities from time to time as consideration for, or to finance, future acquisitions and investments or for other capital needs. We cannot predict the size of future issuances of our shares or the effect, if any, that future sales and issuances of shares would have on the market price of our common stock. If any such acquisition or investment is significant, the number of shares of common stock or the number or aggregate principal amount, as the case may be, of other securities that we may issue may in turn be substantial and may result in additional dilution to our stockholders. We may also grant registration rights covering shares of our common stock or other securities that we may issue in connection with any such acquisitions and investments.

To the extent that any of us, our executive officers or directors sell, or indicate an intent to sell, substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline significantly.

 

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