2028年到期的高級擔保期限貸款將於2028年12月15日到期,並允許我們根據以下的預付款溢價進行預付:(i) 關於在2023年度貸款協議第二週年或之前發生的任何預付款,按照慣例的補償金額,和 (ii) 關於在2023年度貸款協議第二週年之後並在2023年度貸款協議第三週年或之前發生的任何預付款, 25應付利差的%,假設所有利息以資產利息支付的形式支付。在2023年度貸款協議第三週年後,所有預付款均可按面值加計利息進行。
2017年2月,我們宣佈批准一項爲期多年的股票回購計劃(「股票回購計劃」),將最多購買$500 million Sabre普通股。根據股票回購計劃的規定,回購可能在公開市場或私下協商的交易中進行。截至2024年9月30日的九個月內,我們沒有回購任何股票。 沒有 根據股票回購計劃,共購回零股。2020年3月16日,我們宣佈暫停股票回購計劃,以配合我們根據COVID-19疫情造成的市場狀況所採取的一些現金管理措施。截至2024年9月30日,股票回購計劃仍然暫停,剩餘約$287 million 授權用於回購。
Corporate—Technology costs decreased $1 million, or 7%, for the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year due to a $1 million decrease in restructuring costs associated with our cost reduction plan.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Three Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Travel Solutions
$
59,546
$
58,100
$
1,446
2
%
Hospitality Solutions
12,556
12,085
471
4
%
Corporate
88,944
80,551
8,393
10
%
Total selling, general and administrative expenses
$
161,046
$
150,736
$
10,310
7
%
Travel Solutions—Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $1 million, or 2%, for the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year due to a $5 million increase in labor and professional services, offset by a $2 million decrease in the provision for credit losses and a $1 million decrease in other ongoing business expenses.
Corporate—Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $8 million, or 10%, for the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year. The increase was primarily driven by a $9 million increase in indirect taxes.
36
Interest expense, net
Three Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Interest expense, net
$
127,669
$
119,372
$
8,297
7
%
Interest expense increased $8 million, or 7%, during the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to additional interest incurred in connection with the financing activities that have occurred since the prior year period. See Note 7. Debt for further details regarding these debt transactions.
Loss on extinguishment of debt, net
We recognized a loss on extinguishment of debt of $121 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023 as a result of the financing activity that occurred in the third quarter of 2023. See Note 7. Debt for further details.
Other, net
Three Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Other, net
$
(879)
$
11,548
$
(12,427)
(108)
%
Other, net decreased $12 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to changes in realized and unrealized gains and losses from our investments in securities from a loss of $14 million in the prior year period to a gain of $2 million in the current year period, offset by a $3 million increase due to realized and unrealized foreign currency exchange losses in the current period. See Note 9. Fair Value Measurements for further details regarding our investments in securities.
Provision for Income Taxes
Three Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Provision for income taxes
$
6,900
$
8,462
$
(1,562)
(18)
%
For the three months ended September 30, 2024, we recognized $7 million of income tax expense, representing an effective tax rate of less than 1%, compared to an income tax expense of $8 million, representing an effective tax rate of less than 1% for the three months ended September 30, 2023. The effective tax rate decreased for the three months ended September 30, 2024 as compared to the same period in 2023 primarily due to the change in the geographic mix of taxable income and various discrete items recorded in each of the respective three month periods. The difference between our effective tax rates and the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate primarily results from valuation allowances, our geographic mix of taxable income in various tax jurisdictions, tax permanent differences and tax credits.
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2024 and 2023
Revenue
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Travel Solutions
$
2,099,983
$
2,020,131
$
79,852
4
%
Hospitality Solutions
246,054
229,064
16,990
7
%
Total segment revenue
2,346,037
2,249,195
96,842
4
%
Eliminations
(31,196)
(28,510)
(2,686)
9
%
Total revenue
$
2,314,841
$
2,220,685
$
94,156
4
%
Travel Solutions—Revenue increased $80 million, or 4%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year, primarily due to:
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•a $93 million, or 6%, increase in transaction-based distribution revenue due to favorable rate impacts from improved international and corporate bookings and a 2% increase in direct billable bookings to 282 million; partially offset by,
•a $13 million or 3%, decrease in IT solutions revenue driven by a $33 million decline in revenue from customers that have de-migrated from our systems, including the impact of termination fees from a certain carrier in the prior year and a $3 million decrease in other revenue. This decrease was partially offset by an increase of $14 million due to volume growth, excluding the impact of customers that have de-migrated, a $5 million increase in license fee revenue, and a $4 million increase in revenue recognized due to changes in facts and circumstances associated with certain carriers.
Hospitality Solutions—Revenue increased $17 million, or 7%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year. The increase was primarily driven by a $19 million increase in SynXis Software and Services revenue due to an increase in transaction volumes of 4% to 97 million driven by new customer deployments, and a favorable mix within our customer base.
Cost of revenue, excluding technology costs
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Travel Solutions
$
867,703
$
798,404
$
69,299
9
%
Hospitality Solutions
111,160
111,809
(649)
(1)
%
Corporate
2,117
16,670
(14,553)
(87)
%
Depreciation and amortization
15,048
19,158
(4,110)
(21)
%
Eliminations
(31,196)
(28,509)
(2,687)
9
%
Total cost of revenue, excluding technology costs
$
964,832
$
917,532
$
47,300
5
%
Travel Solutions—Cost of revenue, excluding technology costs, increased $69 million, or 9%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year. The increase was primarily driven by a $71 million increase in incentive consideration due to an increase in rates as well as higher transaction volume. This increase was partially offset by a $4 million decrease in labor and professional services costs primarily due to our cost reduction plan.
Hospitality Solutions—Cost of revenue, excluding technology costs, decreased $1 millionfor the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year. A $1 million decrease in labor and professional services costs driven by our cost reduction plan was partially offset by increased costs associated with increased transaction volumes and the mix of our revenue transactions.
Corporate—Cost of revenue, excluding technology costs, decreased $15 million, or 87%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 primarily due to a $12 million restructuring charge associated with the reduction of our workforce recognized in the previous year and a $3 million decrease in labor and professional services driven by our cost reduction plan.
Depreciation and Amortization—Cost of revenue, excluding technology costs, decreased $4 million, or 21%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 primarily due to the acceleration of amortization of certain customer implementation costs in the prior year, in connection with a customer de-migrating from our systems.
Technology Costs
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Travel Solutions
$
542,627
$
667,742
$
(125,115)
(19)
%
Hospitality Solutions
78,881
85,323
(6,442)
(8)
%
Corporate
31,335
46,056
(14,721)
(32)
%
Total technology costs
$
652,843
$
799,121
$
(146,278)
(18)
%
Travel Solutions—Technology costs decreased $125 million, or 19%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year. The decrease was primarily driven by a $67 million decrease in labor and professional services driven by our cost reduction plan, a $52 million decrease in technology costs due to cost savings related to our cloud migrations and a $7 million decrease in depreciation and amortization primarily due to the completion of amortization of certain capitalized internal use software.
Hospitality Solutions—Technology costs decreased $6 million, or 8%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to a $6 million decrease in labor and professional services driven by
38
our cost reduction plan, and a $4 million decrease in depreciation and amortization primarily due to the completion of amortization of certain capitalized internal use software. This decrease was partially offset by a $4 million increase in technology costs to support growth in the business.
Corporate—Technology costs decreased $15 million, or 32%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year due to a $12 million decrease in restructuring costs associated with our cost reduction plan, a $2 million decrease in labor and professional services driven by our cost reduction plan and a $1 million decrease in stock-based compensation primarily due to forfeitures of unvested shares.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Travel Solutions
$
186,855
$
192,128
$
(5,273)
(3)
%
Hospitality Solutions
37,806
38,155
(349)
(1)
%
Corporate
243,438
263,944
(20,506)
(8)
%
Total selling, general and administrative expenses
$
468,099
$
494,227
$
(26,128)
(5)
%
Travel Solutions—Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased $5 million, or 3%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to a $3 million decrease in legal costs and a $3 million decrease in the provision for credit losses.
Corporate—Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased $21 million, or 8%, for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year. The decrease was primarily driven by a $23 million decrease in restructuring costs associated with our cost reduction plan, a $7 million decrease in labor and professional services driven by our cost reduction plan, and a $2 million decrease in depreciation and amortization. These decreases were partially offset by a $7 million increase in indirect taxes, and a $3 million increase in stock-based compensation primarily due to forfeitures of unvested shares in the prior year.
Interest expense, net
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Interest expense, net
$
381,710
$
325,290
$
56,420
17
%
Interest expense increased $56 million, or 17% during the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to additional interest incurred in connection with the financing activities that have occurred since the prior year period. See Note 7. Debt for further details regarding these debt transactions.
Loss on extinguishment of debt, net
We recognized a loss on extinguishment of debt of $38 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2024 as a result of the refinancing activity that occurred in the first quarter of 2024. We recognized a loss on extinguishment of debt of $109 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2023, including a loss on extinguishment of debt of $121 million as a result of the financing activity that occurred in the third quarter of 2023, partially offset by a gain on extinguishment of debt of $13 million as a result of the financing activity that occurred in the second quarter of 2023. See Note 7. Debt for further details.
Other, net
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Other, net
$
347
$
(8,084)
$
8,431
(104)
%
Other, net increased $8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to a $16 million increase due to other non-operating gains recognized in the prior year and a $7 million increase due to realized and unrealized foreign currency exchange losses in the current period. This increase is partially offset by changes in realized and unrealized gains and losses from our investments in securities from a loss of $10 million in the prior year period to a gain of $3 million in the current year period. See Note 9. Fair Value Measurements for further details regarding our investments in securities.
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Provision for Income Taxes
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Change
(Amounts in thousands)
Provision for income taxes
$
14,598
$
16,570
$
(1,972)
(12)
%
For the nine months ended September 30, 2024, we recognized $15 million of income tax expense, representing an effective tax rate of less than 1%, compared to an income tax expense of $17 million, also representing an effective tax rate of less than 1% for the nine months ended September 30, 2023. The effective tax rate decreased for the nine months ended September 30, 2024 as compared to the same period in 2023 primarily due to a decrease in valuation allowance recorded in the current period and various discrete items recorded in each of the respective nine month periods. The difference between our effective tax rates and the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate primarily results from valuation allowances, our geographic mix of taxable income in various tax jurisdictions, tax permanent differences and tax credits.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our current principal source of liquidity is our cash and cash equivalents on hand. As of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, our cash and cash equivalents and outstanding letters of credit were as follows (in thousands):
September 30, 2024
December 31, 2023
Cash and cash equivalents
$
668,763
$
648,207
Available undrawn balance under the AR Facility(1)
—
400
AR Facility outstanding balance(1)
87,300
110,000
Available under the bilateral letter of credit facility
11,085
8,486
Outstanding letters of credit under the bilateral letter of credit facility
8,915
11,514
______________________
(1)AR Facility (as defined below) does not include the FILO Facility (as defined below).
As of September 30, 2024, we had $87 million outstanding under the AR Facility. The AR Facility matures on March 29, 2027 and allows us the ability to prepay the principal amount prior to the maturity date without penalty. See Note 7. Debt.
We consider cash equivalents to be highly liquid investments that are readily convertible into cash. Securities with contractual maturities of three months or less, when purchased, are considered cash equivalents. We record changes in a book overdraft position, in which our bank account is not overdrawn but recently issued and outstanding checks result in a negative general ledger balance, as cash flows from financing activities. We invest in a money market fund which is classified as cash and cash equivalents in our consolidated balance sheets and statements of cash flows. We held no short-term investments as of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023. We had $21 million held as cash collateral for standby letters of credit in restricted cash on our consolidated balance sheets as of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023.
Liquidity Outlook
The travel ecosystem has shifted over the past few years, resulting in the changing needs of our airline, hotel and agency customers, for which we have established strategic priorities with the goal of achieving sustainable long-term growth. We have experienced continued material headwinds within our consolidated financial results for 2023 and through the third quarter of 2024. These changes have had, and we believe they will continue to have, a material negative impact on our financial results and liquidity, and this negative impact may continue. Given the uncertain economic environment, we cannot provide assurance that the assumptions used to estimate our liquidity requirements will be accurate. However, based on our assumptions and estimates with respect to our financial condition, we believe that we have resources to sufficiently fund our liquidity requirements over at least the next twelve months, including the payment of approximately $242 million of principal due at maturity under current debt facilities.
During the first quarter of 2024, we refinanced and extended the maturity on approximately $300 million of our debt, which negatively impacted our results due to increasing interest rates, but increased our overall liquidity by approximately $70 million. In the second quarter of 2023, we began implementing a cost reduction plan designed to reposition our business to the current environment and to structurally reduce our cost base. We believe our cash position and the liquidity measures we have taken will provide additional flexibility as we manage through continued headwinds. We will continue to monitor our liquidity levels and take additional steps should we determine they are necessary.
We utilize cash and cash equivalents primarily to pay our operating expenses, make capital expenditures, invest in our information technology infrastructure, products and offerings, pay taxes, service our debt as it becomes due, and pay other long-term liabilities. Free cash flow is calculated as cash flow from operations reduced by additions to property and equipment. We expect the full year 2024 free cash flow to be positive.
Our ability to generate cash depends on many factors beyond our control, and any failure to meet our debt service obligations could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our ability to make payments on and to
40
refinance our indebtedness, and to fund working capital needs and planned capital expenditures will depend on our ability to generate cash in the future, which is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, business, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control. See “Risk Factors—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 have regularly evaluated and considered, and in the future we will continue to evaluate and consider, strategic acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, equity method investments, refinancing our existing debt or repurchasing our outstanding debt obligations in open market or in privately negotiated transactions, as well as other transactions we believe may create stockholder value or enhance financial performance. These transactions may require cash expenditures or generate proceeds and, to the extent they require cash expenditures, may be funded through a combination of cash on hand, debt or equity offerings.
While our business has incurred net losses on a GAAP basis, we recognized federal taxable income in 2023 based on our operating and non-operating results along with provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that limit interest expense deduction and the annual use of Net Operating Loss (“NOL”) carryforwards, and requires companies to capitalize and amortize research and development costs. As a result, we expect to be a U.S. federal cash taxpayer in 2024, and we also expect to benefit from the usage of NOLs in 2024 to the extent available. We expect to continue to benefit from our NOLs and certain tax credits in the near-term beyond 2024. Additionally, several countries, primarily Canada and in Europe, have proposed or adopted DST on revenue earned by multinational companies from the provision of certain digital services, such as the use of an online marketplace, regardless of physical presence. Rates for DST we incur range from 1.5% to 7.5% of revenue earned in these jurisdictions. We record DST in selling, general and administrative costs in the consolidated statements of operations. During the second quarter of 2024, we recorded $8 million of DST related to recently enacted legislation in Canada, of which $6 million was retroactive to periods prior to 2024. These amounts will become due in the second quarter of 2025. We are continuing to analyze the ongoing impacts of DST on our business in various jurisdictions and currently expect future DST expense to be lower than current periods, unless additional jurisdictions adopt DST with a retroactive date. In the third quarter of 2024, we increased our DST reserves further for additional jurisdictions that we believe are applicable; payment of these amounts may negatively impact our cash flow to the extent we are unable to recover the amounts from our customers, where allowed under our contracts.
Capital Resources
As of September 30, 2024, our outstanding debt totaled $5.0 billion, which is net of debt issuance costs and unamortized discounts of $119 million. Currently approximately 42% of our debt, net of cash and hedging impacts from interest rates swaps, is variable and impacted by changes in interest rates. Approximately 23% of our debt is variable, excluding the Senior Secured Term Loan due in 2028, where interest rate pricing is subject to the highest yield to maturity of Sabre GLBL secured debt as defined by the Reference Rate. See “Risk Factors—We are exposed to interest rate fluctuations." In the future, we may review opportunities to refinance our existing debt, as well as conduct debt or equity offerings to support future strategic investments, support operational requirements, provide additional liquidity, or pay down debt.
The global capital markets experienced periods of volatility throughout 2023 and through the third quarter of 2024, in response to the geopolitical conflict, higher rate of inflation, and uncertainty regarding the path of U.S. monetary policy. During 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, we refinanced portions of our debt which resulted in interest rates higher than prior years, increasing current and future interest expense. However, the June 2023 Refinancing (as defined below) provides the ability for interest to be payable-in-kind, such that amounts due are capitalized into the note balance at the payment date rather than paid in cash, reducing our near-term cash payments for interest on this debt. Subject to market conditions, we may opportunistically refinance portions of our debt in the near term which, at current interest rates and market conditions, may negatively impact our interest expense or result in higher dilution. In addition, from time to time, we may decide to repurchase or otherwise retire portions of our existing indebtedness through transactions in the open market, privately negotiated transactions, tender offers, exchange offers or otherwise, or we may redeem or prepay portions of our existing indebtedness. Any such action will depend on market conditions and various other factors existing at that time. Furthermore, we may be required to pay US Airways' reasonable attorneys' fees and costs related to that antitrust litigation. See Note 13. Contingencies, to our consolidated financial statements.
Our continued access to capital resources depends on multiple factors, including global economic conditions, the condition of global financial markets, the availability of sufficient amounts of financing, our ability to meet debt covenant requirements, our operating performance, and our credit ratings. These factors could lead to further market disruption and potential increases to our funding costs. While the terms of our outstanding indebtedness allow us to incur additional debt, subject to limitations, our ability to incur additional secured indebtedness is significantly limited. As a result, we expect that any material increases in total indebtedness, if available and to the extent issued in the future, may be unsecured. If our credit ratings were to be downgraded, or financing sources were to become more limited or to ascribe higher risk to our rating levels or our industry, our access to capital and the cost of any financing would be negatively impacted. There is no guarantee that additional debt financing will be available in the future to fund our obligations, or that it will be available on commercially reasonable terms, in which case we may need to seek other sources of funding. In addition, the terms of future debt agreements could include more restrictive covenants than those we are currently subject to, which could restrict our business operations. For more information, see "Risk Factors—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."
Under the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, the loan parties are subject to certain customary non-financial covenants, including restrictions on incurring certain types of indebtedness, creation of liens on certain assets, making of certain
41
investments, and payment of dividends. In the first quarter of 2023, we entered into the AR Facility of up to $200 million, and in the first quarter of 2024, we increased the overall size of the AR Facility through the FILO Facility, resulting in a Securitization Facility of $235 million (as each of such terms is defined below). In June 2023, we entered into the 2023 Term Loan Agreement, which provides for a senior secured term loan of up to $700 million in aggregate principal amount and requires that we maintain cash balances of at least $100 million in certain foreign subsidiaries and other covenants to ensure collateral of the applicable foreign guarantors meet certain minimum levels. The 2023 Term Loan Agreement also includes various non-financial covenants, including restrictions on making certain investments, disposition activities and affiliate transactions. In addition, the 2023 Term Loan Agreement contains customary prepayment events and financial and negative covenants and other representations, covenants and events of default based on, but in certain instances more restrictive than, the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement. As of September 30, 2024, we were in compliance with all covenants under the terms of the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, the Securitization Facility, the 2023 Term Loan Agreement and the Pari Passu Loan Agreement.
We are required to pay down our term loans by an amount equal to 50% of annual excess cash flow, as defined in the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement. This percentage requirement may decrease or be eliminated if certain leverage ratios are achieved. Based on our results for the year ended December 31, 2022, we were not required to make an excess cash flow payment in 2023, and no excess cash flow payment is required in 2024 with respect to our results for the year ended December 31, 2023. We are further required to pay down the term loans with proceeds from certain asset sales, net of taxes, or borrowings, that are not otherwise reinvested in the business, as provided in the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement.
Recent Events Impacting Our Liquidity and Capital Resources
Debt Agreements
On May 16, 2023, Sabre GLBL entered into Amendment No. 5 to the Credit Agreement (the “SOFR Amendment”). The SOFR Amendment was entered into pursuant to the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, dated as of February 19, 2013. The SOFR Amendment provides for the replacement of LIBOR-based rates with a SOFR-based rate for the 2021 Term Loan B-1 and 2021 Term Loan B-2 and amends certain provisions of the Credit Agreement. The change from LIBOR to SOFR is due to the reference rate reform and the phasing out of LIBOR as a loan benchmark. The SOFR Amendment did not have a material impact on our financial position or results of operations.
On June 13, 2023, Sabre Financial Borrower, LLC (“Sabre FB”), our indirect, consolidated subsidiary entered into a series of transactions including a new term loan credit agreement with certain lenders (the "2023 Term Loan Agreement") and an intercompany secured term loan agreement (the “Pari Passu Loan Agreement”). The 2023 Term Loan Agreement provides for a senior secured term loan (the “Senior Secured Term Loan Due 2028”) of up to $700 million in aggregate principal amount, subject to Sabre FB using the proceeds from the Senior Secured Term Loan Due 2028 for an intercompany loan to Sabre GLBL. On June 13, 2023, Sabre FB borrowed the full $700 million amount under the 2023 Term Loan Agreement and lent the funds to Sabre GLBL under the Pari Passu Loan Agreement. Borrowings under the 2023 Term Loan Agreement are secured by the assets of Sabre FB, including Sabre FB's claims under the Pari Passu Loan Agreement, and assets of certain of our foreign subsidiaries. Borrowings under the Pari Passu Loan Agreement are secured by first-priority liens on the same collateral securing the indebtedness owing under the Senior Secured Credit Facilities and Sabre GLBL's outstanding Senior Secured Notes. Sabre GLBL used the proceeds borrowed under the Pari Passu Loan Agreement to repurchase $650 million of its outstanding 9.25% Senior Secured Notes due 2025 (the “June 2023 Refinancing”) and $15 million of its outstanding 2021 Term Loan B-1, 2021 Term Loan B-2 and 2022 Term Loan B-2. The remaining proceeds, net of a discount of $23 million, were used to pay $13 million in other fees and expenses. We incurred additional fees of $15 million, plus $10 million of accrued and unpaid interest on the 9.25% Senior Secured Notes, which were funded with cash on hand. We recognized a net gain on extinguishment of debt in connection with the June 2023 Refinancing during the nine months ended September 30, 2023 of $13 million.
On September 7, 2023, Sabre GLBL completed exchange offers in which approximately $787 million of our 7.375% senior secured notes due 2025 (the “September 2025 Notes”) and approximately $66 million of our 9.25% senior secured notes due 2025 (the “April 2025 Notes”) were exchanged for a combination of cash and approximately $853 million aggregate principal amount of 8.625% senior secured notes due 2027 (the “June 2027 Notes”), issued at par (the “September 2023 Exchange Transaction”). The June 2027 Notes are jointly and severally, irrevocably and unconditionally guaranteed by Sabre Holdings and all of Sabre GLBL’s restricted subsidiaries that guarantee the Senior Secured Credit Facilities and the Secured Term Loan Due 2028. The June 2027 Notes bear interest at a rate of 8.625% per annum and interest payments are due semi-annually in arrears on March 1 and September 1 of each year, beginning March 1, 2024. The June 2027 Notes mature on June 1, 2027. Sabre GLBL did not receive any cash proceeds from the exchange and did not incur additional indebtedness in excess of the aggregate principal amount of the April 2025 Notes and the September 2025 Notes that were exchanged. We incurred additional fees of approximately $133 million, primarily consisting of approximately $115 million in exchange fees, $15 million in underwriting and associated fees and expenses plus $3 million of accrued and unpaid interest, all of which were funded with cash on hand. We determined that the September 2023 Exchange Transaction, including the impact of the exchange fees, represents a debt extinguishment and therefore recognized a loss on extinguishment of debt during the year ended December 31, 2023 of $121 million, consisting of $115 million in exchange fees related to the June 2027 Notes and $6 million related to the write-off of unamortized debt issuance costs on the April 2025 Notes and the September 2025 Notes.
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On March 7, 2024, Sabre GLBL exchanged approximately $36 million of our September 2025 Notes and approximately $7 million of our April 2025 Notes for approximately $50 million aggregate principal amount of additional June 2027 Notes (the "March 2024 Exchange Transaction"). No additional indebtedness was incurred as a result of the transaction, other than amounts covering exchange fees of approximately $7 million. Other than the issuance date and issue price, these additional June 2027 notes have the same terms, form a single series with, and are fungible with the June 2027 Notes described above. We incurred additional fees of approximately $1 million, which were funded with cash on hand. We determined that the March 2024 Exchange Transaction, including the impact of the exchange fees, represents a debt extinguishment and therefore recognized a loss on extinguishment of debt during the nine months ended September 30, 2024 of approximately $7 million, primarily consisting of exchange fees related to the June 2027 Notes.
Exchangeable Notes
On March 19, 2024, Sabre GLBL exchanged $150 million aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 2025 Exchangeable Notes for $150 million aggregate principal amount of Sabre GLBL's newly-issued 7.32% senior exchangeable notes due 2026 (the "2026 Exchangeable Notes" and together with the 2025 Exchangeable Notes, the "Exchangeable Notes") and approximately $30 million of cash. We incurred additional fees of approximately $5 million in associated fees and expenses plus $3 million of accrued and unpaid interest, all of which were funded with cash on hand. We determined that the exchange transaction, including the impact of the exchange fees, represents a debt extinguishment and therefore recognized a loss on extinguishment of debt of $31 million. We did not receive any cash proceeds from the exchange and did not incur additional indebtedness in excess of the aggregate principal amount of existing notes that were exchanged. The 2026 Exchangeable Notes are senior, unsecured obligations of Sabre GLBL, accrue interest payable semi-annually in arrears on February 1 and August 1 of each year, beginning on August 1 2024, and mature on August 1, 2026, unless earlier repurchased or exchanged in accordance with specified circumstances and terms of the indenture governing the 2026 Exchangeable Notes (the "2026 Exchangeable Notes Indenture" and together with the 2025 Exchangeable Notes Indenture, the "Exchangeable Indentures"). As of September 30, 2024, we have $150 million aggregate principal amount of 2026 Exchangeable Notes outstanding.
Securitization Facility
On February 14, 2023, Sabre Securitization, LLC, our indirect, consolidated subsidiary and a special purpose entity (“Sabre Securitization”), entered into a three-year committed accounts receivable securitization facility (as amended from time to time the “Securitization Facility”) of up to $200 million with PNC Bank, N.A.
On March 29, 2024, Sabre Securitization increased the overall size of its existing Securitization Facility from $200 million to $235 million by issuing a $120 million "first-in, last-out" term loan tranche under the Securitization Facility (such tranche, the "FILO Facility") and reducing the revolving tranche under the Securitization Facility to $115 million (such tranche, the "AR Facility"). In connection with the issuance of the FILO Facility, the maturity date of the Securitization Facility was extended to March 29, 2027 and the springing maturity date thereunder was terminated. The FILO Facility provides the ability to prepay or repay at certain redemption premiums as set forth in the agreement. The net proceeds received from the FILO Facility of $117 million, net of $3 million in fees paid to creditors, will be used for general corporate purposes. We incurred additional fees of $4 million, which were funded with cash on hand.
The amount available for borrowings at any one time under the Securitization Facility is limited to a borrowing base calculated based on the outstanding balance of eligible receivables, subject to certain reserves. As of September 30, 2024, we had $207 million outstanding under the Securitization Facility, consisting of $87 million under the AR Facility and $120 million outstanding under the FILO Facility.
Dividends
The Preferred Stock accumulated cumulative dividends at a rate per annum equal to 6.50% payable, at our election, in cash, shares of our common stock or a combination of cash and shares of our common stock. We accrued $4 million and $14 million of preferred stock dividends in our consolidated results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, we paid cash dividends on our preferred stock of $5 million and $16 million. On September 1, 2023, the mandatory conversion date, each outstanding share of Preferred Stock was automatically converted into shares of our common stock. See Note 11. Stock and Stockholders' Equityfor further details.
Share Repurchase Program
In February 2017, we announced the approval of a multi-year share repurchase program (the “Share Repurchase Program”) to purchase up to $500 million of Sabre's common stock outstanding. Repurchases under the Share Repurchase Program may take place in the open market or privately negotiated transactions. During the nine months ended September 30, 2024, we did not repurchase any shares pursuant to the Share Repurchase Program. On March 16, 2020, we announced the suspension of share repurchases under the Share Repurchase Program in conjunction with the cash management measures we undertook as a result of the market conditions caused by COVID-19. As of September 30, 2024, the Share Repurchase Program remains suspended and approximately $287 million remains authorized for repurchases. In addition, the terms of certain of the agreements governing our indebtedness contain covenants that, among other things, limit our ability to repurchase our common stock. See “Risk Factors—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.”
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Senior Secured Credit Facilities
Under the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, the loan parties are subject to certain customary non-financial covenants, including restrictions on incurring certain types of indebtedness, creation of liens on certain assets, making of certain investments, and payment of dividends. As of September 30, 2024, we are in compliance with all covenants under the terms of the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement.
Cash Flows
Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
(Amounts in thousands)
Cash used in operating activities
$
(12,150)
$
(39,781)
Cash used in investing activities
(13,518)
(80,631)
Cash provided by (used in) financing activities
46,049
(72,518)
Cash used in discontinued operations
—
(148)
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash
176
(205)
Increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash
$
20,557
$
(193,283)
Operating Activities
Cash used in operating activities totaled $12 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2024. The $28 million increase in operating cash flow from the same period in the prior year was primarily due to revenue growth from an increase in volume and favorable rate impacts from travel supplier mix, as well as the impacts of our cost reduction plans and technology transformation efforts, which have improved our profitability and cash, a $14 million decrease in interest payments related to our debt, primarily due to the deferral of paid-in-kind interest and a $30 million decrease in severance payments made in connection with our cost reduction plan. These changes were partially offset by payments of $17 million associated primarily with employee retention plans.
Investing Activities
For the nine months ended September 30, 2024, we used $68 million of cash for capital expenditures primarily related to software developed for internal use and acquired software licenses associated with our internal billing systems, partially offset by proceeds received from the sale of investment in securities of $55 million.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, we used $69 million of cash for capital expenditures primarily related to software developed for internal use and $12 million for acquisition-related activity.
Financing Activities
For the nine months ended September 30, 2024, financing activities provided $46 million. Significant highlights of our financing activities include:
•proceeds of $150 million from the issuance of the 2026 Exchangeable Notes;
•payment of $150 million on our 2025 Exchangeable Notes;
•proceeds of $120 million from the issuance of the FILO Facility;
•proceeds of $50 million from the issuance of our June 2027 Notes;
•payment of $50 million for debt discount and issuance costs;
•payment of $36 million on our September 2025 Notes and $7 million on our April 2025 Notes;
•net payment of $23 million on borrowings on our AR Facility; and
•net payments of $7 million from the settlement of employee stock-option awards.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, we used $73 million of cash for financing activities. Significant highlights of our financing activities include:
•proceeds of $853 million from the issuance of our June 2027 Notes;
•payment of $787 million on our September 2025 Notes and $66 million on our April 2025 Notes;
•proceeds of $677 million from the issuance of the Senior Secured Term Loan Due 2028;
•payment of $665 million on our 9.25% senior secured notes due 2025, 2021 Term Loan B-1, 2021 Term Loan B-2 and 2022 Term Loan B-2;
•payment of $159 million for debt discount and issuance costs;
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•net proceeds of $130 million from borrowings on our AR Facility;
•payment of $55 million on our term loans under the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, $48 million of which is a prepayment from the sale of our AirCentre portfolio in 2022;
•proceeds of $16 million from the sale of our common shares of the direct parent of Conferma;
•payment of $16 million in dividends on our then outstanding preferred stock; and
•net payments of $5 million from the settlement of employee stock-option awards.
Contractual Obligations
There were no material changes to our future minimum contractual obligations since December 31, 2023 as previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2024, other than impacts of the March 2024 Exchange Transaction, 2026 Exchangeable Notes, and the Securitization Facility.
We had no off balance sheet arrangements during the nine months ended September 30, 2024 and year ended December 31, 2023.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Information related to Recent Accounting Pronouncements is included in Note 1. General Information, to our consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Critical Accounting Estimates
This discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect our reported assets and liabilities, revenues and expenses and other financial information. Actual results may differ significantly from these estimates, and our reported financial condition and results of operations could vary under different assumptions and conditions. In addition, our reported financial condition and results of operations could vary due to a change in the application of a particular accounting standard.
We regard an accounting estimate underlying our financial statements as a “critical accounting estimate” if the accounting estimate requires us to make assumptions about matters that are uncertain at the time of estimation and if changes in the estimate are reasonably likely to occur and could have a material effect on the presentation of financial condition, changes in financial condition, or results of operations. For a discussion of the accounting policies involving material estimates and assumptions that we believe are most critical to the preparation of our financial statements, how we apply such policies and how results differing from our estimates and assumptions would affect the amounts presented in our financial statements, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Estimates” included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2024. Since the date of the annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2024, there have been no material changes to our critical accounting estimates.
ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Market risk is the potential loss from adverse changes in: (i) prevailing interest rates, (ii) foreign exchange rates, (iii) credit risk and (iv) inflation. Our exposure to market risk relates to interest payments due on our long-term debt, derivative instruments, income on cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable and payable, subscriber incentive liabilities and deferred revenue. We manage our exposure to these risks through established policies and procedures. We do not engage in trading, market making or other speculative activities in the derivatives markets. Our objective is to mitigate potential income statement, cash flow and fair value exposures resulting from possible future adverse fluctuations in interest and foreign exchange rates. There were no material changes in our market risk since December 31, 2023 as previously disclosed under “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk” included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2024.
ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as this term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)) as of the end of the period covered by this report. Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded that, as of the end of this period, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.
Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There have not been any changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as this term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
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PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
The Company and its subsidiaries are from time to time engaged in routine legal proceedings incidental to our business. For a description of our material legal proceedings, see Note 13. Contingencies, to our consolidated financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which is incorporated herein by reference.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
The following risk factors may be important to understanding any statement in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or elsewhere. Our business, financial condition and operating results can be affected by a number of factors, whether currently known or unknown, including but not limited to those described below. Any one or more of these factors could directly or indirectly cause our actual results of operations and financial condition to vary materially from past or anticipated future results of operations and financial condition. Any of these factors, in whole or in part, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and stock price.
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 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 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 have caused, and may in the future cause, temporary or sustained disruption to leisure and business travel. The impact these disruptions have had, and would in the future have, on our business depends on the magnitude and duration of such disruption. These factors include, among others: (1) general and local economic conditions, including recessions and inflationary pressures; (2) 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; (3) 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, safety concerns and movements toward remote working environments and changes in business practices; (4) political events like acts or threats of terrorism, hostilities, war and political unrest; (5) inclement weather, natural or man-made disasters and the effects of climate change; and (6) 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. In addition, sustained disruptions from COVID-19 negatively impacted our business, and the extent of our recovery following these disruptions is uncertain. While we have experienced a gradual recovery in our primary metrics over the past few years, we cannot predict the long-term effects of the pandemic on our business or the travel industry as a whole. If our business or 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 travel industry recovers. Developments that could affect the extent of any future recovery include, but are not limited to, the effect of changes in hiring levels and remote working arrangements; the speed and extent of the recovery across the broader travel ecosystem; and short- and long-term changes in travel patterns, including business or long-haul travel. 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.
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. 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. 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.
We operate in highly competitive, evolving markets, and if we do not continue to innovate and evolve, our business operations and competitiveness may be harmed.
Travel technology is rapidly evolving as travel suppliers seek new or improved means of accessing their customers and increasing value. We must continue to innovate and evolve our current and future offerings to respond to the changing needs of travel suppliers and meet intense competition. We also face increasing competition as suppliers seek IT solutions that provide the same traveler experience across all channels of distribution, whether indirectly through the GDS or directly through other
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channels. As travel suppliers adopt innovative solutions that function across channels, our operating results could suffer if we do not foresee the need for new products or services to meet competition either for GDS or for other distribution IT solutions.
Adapting to new technological and marketplace developments 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 platforms, 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 products with new capabilities to adapt to the changing technological and regulatory 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. 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. As a result, we must continue to invest significant resources in order to continually improve the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of our services and we have made and may in the future be required to make changes to our technology platforms or increase our investment in technology, increase marketing, adjust prices or business models, acquire or invest in new lines of business and take other actions, which has affected and in the future could affect our financial performance and liquidity.
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, government regulations, and trends and customer requirements. As another example, migration of our enterprise applications and platforms to other hosting environments has caused us and will continue to cause us to incur substantial costs, and has resulted in and could in the future result in instability and business interruptions, which could materially harm our business.
Our Travel Solutions 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 Solutions business, which, in turn, negatively affects our revenues and margins. In addition, travel suppliers’ use of multiple distribution channels may also adversely affect our contract renegotiations with these suppliers and negatively impact our revenue. Furthermore, as we attempt to renegotiate new GDS agreements with our travel suppliers, they may withhold some or all of their content (fares and associated economic 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 Solutions business as a marketplace due to our more limited content.
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 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 provision for expected credit losses 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. Our Travel Solutions business depends on a relatively small number of airlines for a substantial portion of its revenue, and 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 Solutions business is exposed to pricing pressure from travel suppliers.”
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 incidents.
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, and various other country-specific and U.S. state data protection laws have gone into effect or are scheduled to go into effect. These and other 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. Furthermore, various countries 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 operate with regard to the use of personal data, new data handling or localization requirements. Additionally, media coverage of data incidents 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 continues to increase, we also risk exposure to potential liabilities and costs or face reputational risks 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.
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 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.
Our Travel Solutions business depends on relationships with travel buyers.
Our Travel Solutions 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. 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 also shift bookings to other distribution channels 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, 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 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 Travel Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses depend on maintaining and renewing contracts with their customers and other counterparties.
In our Travel Solutions 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
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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, and the termination or expiration of these agreements could materially adversely impact our business. See “—Our Travel Solutions 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 Travel 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 equity method investments to extend our GDS services in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (“EMEA”) and Asia-Pacific (“APAC”). The termination of our contractual arrangements with any of these third-party distributor partners and equity method investments could adversely impact our Travel Solutions business in the relevant regions. See “—We rely on third-party distributor partners and equity method investments 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 equity method investments.
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 Solutions 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 equity method investments or developing relationships with new travel buyers and travel suppliers to offset any customer losses.
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.
We are exposed to risks associated with payment card industry data ("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. For example, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has released version 4.0 of its Data Security Standard, and we are in the process of incorporating these new standards on our existing processes and controls. We are assessed periodically for assurance and successfully completed our last annual assessment in October 2024. 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 incidents expose us to liability and could 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.
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 13. Contingencies, to our consolidated financial statements. For example, as a result of the judgment in our antitrust litigation with US Airways, we may be required to pay US Airways’ reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. Depending on the amount of attorneys’ fees and costs required to be paid to US Airways, if any, if we do not have sufficient cash on hand, we may be required to seek financing from private or public financing sources, which may not be assured. 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.” In addition, although the jury rejected US Airways’ claim under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, finding that Sabre’s contractual terms were not anticompetitive, the jury found in favor of US Airways with respect to its monopolization claim for the period from 2007 to 2012 under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Although US Airways was only awarded $1.00 in single damages with respect to this verdict, and we believe the applicable limitations period for similar claims has expired, other parties might nevertheless likewise seek to benefit from this judgment 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. Depending on the outcome of any of these matters, and the scope of the outcome, the manner in which our
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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 13. Contingencies, to our consolidated financial statements or elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and any other actions that might be 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.
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, or restrict access to, 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, antiboycott, telecommunications, cybersecurity, environmental, social and governance matters, 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, the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, North Korea and Syria, and nationals and others of those countries, and certain specifically targeted individuals and entities engaged in conduct detrimental to U.S. national security interests. These sanctions are administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and are typically known as the OFAC rules. The OFAC rules, and similar regulations in other countries, 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, the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, North Korea and Syria but are based outside of those countries and are neither owned by those governments or nationals of those countries/regions nor themselves sanctioned. 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 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 to customers outside the United States. 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 and other regulators. We note, however, that sanctions regulations and related interpretive guidance are complex and subject to varying interpretations. Due to this complexity, a regulator’s interpretation of its own regulations and guidance varies on a case by case basis. As a result, we cannot provide any guarantees that a regulator 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 could 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.
In addition, in connection with the current military conflict in Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other governments have imposed varying sanctions and export-control measure packages impacting Russia and certain regions of Ukraine and Belarus and may implement additional sanctions and export controls in the future. The conflict and these sanctions and export controls have prevented us, and in the future could further prevent or discourage us, from performing or renewing existing contracts with or receiving payments from customers in those countries. In addition, the conflict or these sanctions and export controls have prevented and in the future could further prevent or discourage third parties on whom we may rely from continuing to perform in those countries. These sanctions, export controls and related items, as well as actions taken by us or others in response to them or otherwise in connection with the military conflict, have adversely impacted, and in the future could further adversely impact, our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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Effective October 30, 2022, Russian legislation and related regulations have required activities related to the development, creation and operation of automated information systems for processing domestic air transportation within the Russian Federation to be owned and operated by Russian residents or legal entities with no updates from or connection with systems abroad. This legislation and these regulations have prohibited our ability to provide these services in Russia, which has negatively impacted and is expected to continue to negatively impact our revenue and results. On May 23, 2024, Russia issued a decree establishing a process for the seizure of assets of U.S. companies and nationals in Russia. Any implementation of this decree would significantly limit our operations and ability to provide services in Russia, negatively impacting our revenue and results.
As noted, the regulations and sanctions described above, as well as other sanctions regimes, are complex. While we have a compliance program in place to help us address these items, there can be no assurance that we will be able to consistently address them in an effective manner. Any failure to comply with these sanctions, export controls and related rules and regulations may subject us to fines, penalties and potential criminal violations. In the third quarter of 2022, we identified elements of our sanctions compliance program that were not functioning as we intended, which we believe we have substantially addressed. In identifying these elements, we became aware that we received payments that were not material in amount from an air carrier in Russia for GDS services, and the receipt of these payments may be in violation of U.K. sanctions. We have voluntarily disclosed the receipt of these payments to the U.K. Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI). If OFSI were to impose a penalty, we believe that it would not be material; however, there can be no assurance of the amount of any such penalty.
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.
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, including the sale of our AirCentre portfolio in 2022. Any divestitures may involve a number of risks, including the diversion of management’s attention, significant costs and expenses, failure to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, implementation of transition services related to such divestitures, 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.
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 personally identifiable information (“PII”), or other bad publicity due to litigation, regulatory concerns or otherwise relating to our business. See “—Security incidents expose us to liability and could 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.
We rely on third-party distributor partners and equity method investments 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 Solutions business utilizes third-party distributor partners and equity method investments 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
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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 equity method investments.
Risks Related to Technology and Intellectual Property
We rely on the availability and performance of information technology services provided by third parties, including network, cloud, mainframe and SaaS providers.
Our businesses are dependent on IT infrastructure and applications operated for us by network, cloud, mainframe and SaaS providers. The commercial services we offer to our customers generally run on infrastructure provided by third parties such as DXC Technology ("DXC") and cloud providers. DXC provides significant operational support for our mainframe platforms in addition to basic hosting services. We also use multiple third-party SaaS platforms to operate our services, run our business, and support our customers, including IT service management, program and project management, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and human resource management systems.
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: (1) Any of these providers fail to enable us to provide our customers and suppliers with reliable, real-time access to our systems. For example, we have previously experienced a significant outage of the Sabre platform due to a failure on the part of one of our service providers, and such outages may occur in the future. This outage, which affected our Travel 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. (2) 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 our mainframe platforms makes it difficult for us to switch vendors and makes us more sensitive to changes in DXC's pricing for its services.
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 currently allocated system capacity, resulting in service interruptions, outages and delays. These constraints could 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 Travel Solutions and Hospitality Solutions businesses provide to airlines and hotels. In addition, we have experienced in the past and may in the future occasionally experience system interruptions as we execute changes for the purpose of enhancing our products or achieving other technological objectives. System interruptions prevent us from efficiently providing services to customers or other third parties, and could cause damage to our reputation and result in the loss of 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 are also susceptible to external damage or disruption. Our systems have in the past been, and at any time, including in the future could be, damaged or disrupted by events such as 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, ransomware attacks, attacks on, or exploitations of, hardware or software vulnerabilities, physical or electronic break-ins, phishing attacks, cybersecurity incidents or other security incidents, and similar disruptions affecting the Internet, telecommunication services, our systems, or our customers' systems have caused in the past and could at any time, including in the future, cause service interruptions or the loss of critical data, preventing us from providing timely services. For example, in April 2021 our subsidiary Radixx announced an event impacting its Radixx reservation system. See “—Security incidents expose us to liability and could 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 our critical systems and 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. 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. We utilize various generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions from our third-party providers as part of some of our software products. There are risks associated with the use of emerging technologies such as generative AI, including risks related to testing and validating the security and privacy mechanisms of the third-party providers,
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as well as risks related to implementing technical security controls to govern and manage this technology in a secure manner. If we were to experience a cybersecurity incident related to the integration of AI capabilities into our software product offerings, or if there are deficiencies or other failures of such AI solutions from our third-party providers, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected. AI also presents various emerging legal, regulatory and ethical issues, and the incorporation of AI into our software products could require us to expend significant resources in developing, testing and maintaining our product offerings and may cause us to experience brand, reputational, or competitive harm, or incur legal liability. Additionally, security incidents 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 have caused in the past and could in the future cause interruptions in our IT systems, which could have a material adverse effect on our business operations and harm our reputation.
Security incidents expose us to liability and could damage our reputation and our business.
We process, store, and transmit large amounts of data, such as PII of our customers and employees and PCI of our customers, and it is critical to our business strategy that our facilities and infrastructure, including those provided by DXC, cloud providers 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, ransomware attacks, 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 information has in the past been, and could at any time, including in the future, be compromised as a result. In addition, the techniques employed in connection with these threats and intrusions are changing, developing and evolving rapidly, including from emerging technologies such as advanced forms of AI. The costs and impacts related to these incidents, including the costs of investigation and remediation, any associated penalties assessed by any governmental authority or payment card brand, and any indemnification or other contractual obligations to our customers, may be material and could damage our reputation.
For example, we previously 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”). In December 2020, we entered into settlement agreements with certain state Attorneys General to resolve their investigation into this incident. As part of these agreements, we paid $2 million to the states represented by the Attorneys General in the first quarter of 2021 and agreed to implement certain security controls and processes. In addition, in April 2021, our subsidiary, Radixx, announced that it had experienced an event that impacted its Radixx Res™ reservation system. An investigation indicated that malware on the Radixx Res™ reservation system caused the activity. Based on the investigation, Sabre’s systems, including GDS, Airline IT, SabreSonic passenger service system and Hospitality Solutions systems, were not impacted, and the investigation indicated that the Radixx database containing customer information was not compromised in this event.
In addition, in the third quarter of 2023, we became aware that an unauthorized actor had illegally extracted certain company data and posted it to the dark web. Immediately upon becoming aware of this extraction, we initiated an investigation, with the assistance of cybersecurity and forensics professionals. We have also notified federal law enforcement and have provided, and will continue to provide, other required notifications. To date this cybersecurity incident has not had a material impact on our financial condition, results of operations or liquidity. However, there is no assurance that it will not result in significant costs to us, reputational harm, expenditure of additional resources, lawsuits, or regulatory inquiries in the future that could result in a material adverse effect.
Any computer viruses, malware, denial of service attacks, ransomware attacks, attacks on, or exploitations of, hardware or software vulnerabilities, physical or electronic break-ins, phishing attacks, cybersecurity incidents such as the items described above, or other security incident 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 or utilize that are designed to protect customer information and prevent data loss and other security incidents 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 incidents 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. For example, our agreements with customers may require that we indemnify the customer for liability arising from data incidents 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. 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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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 capabilities. 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 use 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.
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
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guarantee that our licensees will abide by the terms of our license agreements or that the terms of our agreements will always be enforceable. 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.
Risks Related to Economic, Political and Global Conditions
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. Our global presence makes our business potentially vulnerable to economic and political conditions that adversely affect business and leisure travel originating in or traveling to a particular region.
The global economy continues to face significant uncertainty, including increased inflation and interest rates, 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, changes in the regulatory, tax and economic environment in the United States 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.
Any unfavorable economic, political or regulatory developments in a particular region 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 that region. For example, some regions have experienced or are expected to experience inflationary and/or slowing economic conditions. These adverse economic conditions may negatively impact our business results in those regions.
In addition, the current military conflict in Ukraine and the related imposition of sanctions and export controls on Russia and Belarus, as well as conflict in the Middle East, have created global economic uncertainty and contributed to inflationary pressures. A significant escalation or expansion of economic disruption, the conflicts' current scope or additional sanctions and export controls and actions taken in response to these sanctions and export controls could disrupt our business further, broaden inflationary costs, and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. See “—Our revenue is highly dependent on transaction volumes in the global travel industry, particularly air travel transaction volumes.”
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: (1) business, political and economic instability in foreign locations, including actual or threatened terrorist activities, and military action, as well as the effects of the current military conflict in Ukraine and in the Middle East; (2) adverse laws and regulatory requirements, including more comprehensive regulation in the E.U. and legislation and related regulations in Russia (see “—Any failure to comply with regulations or any changes in such regulations governing our businesses could adversely affect us.”); (3) changes in foreign currency exchange rates and financial risk arising from transactions in multiple currencies; (4) difficulty in developing, managing and staffing international operations because of distance, language and cultural differences; (5) disruptions to or delays in the development of communication and transportation services and infrastructure; (6) more restrictive data privacy requirements, including the GDPR; (7) consumer attitudes, including
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the preference of customers for local providers, as well as attitudes of other stakeholders stemming from our actions or inactions arising from or relating to the current military conflict in Ukraine; (8) 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; (9) export or trade restrictions or currency controls; (10) governmental policies or actions, such as consumer, labor and trade protection measures and, travel restrictions, sanctions and export controls, including restrictions implemented in connection with the current military conflict in Ukraine; (11) taxes, restrictions on foreign investment and limits on the repatriation of funds; (12) diminished ability to legally enforce our contractual rights; and (13) decreased protection for intellectual property. Any of the foregoing risks may adversely affect our ability to conduct and grow our business internationally.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness, Financial Condition and Common Stock
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. As of September 30, 2024, we had $5.0 billion of indebtedness outstanding which is net of debt issuance costs and unamortized discounts. 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: (1) increased vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions; (2) 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 or if we have to incur additional indebtedness in a higher interest rate environment; (3) 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; (4) limited ability to refinance our existing indebtedness or 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; (5) 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 (6) a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less debt. Subject to market conditions, we have previously, and may in the future, opportunistically refinance portions of our debt in the near term which, at current interest rates and market conditions, may negatively impact our interest expense or result in higher stock dilution.
In addition, it is possible that we may need to incur additional indebtedness in the future in the ordinary course of business. While the terms of our outstanding indebtedness allow us to incur additional debt, subject to limitations, our ability to incur additional secured indebtedness is significantly limited. As a result, we expect that any material increases in total indebtedness, if available and to the extent issued in the future, may be unsecured. The terms of our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement 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 covenants 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.
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: (1) incur liens on our property, assets and revenue; (2) borrow money, and guarantee or provide other support for the indebtedness of third parties; (3) pay dividends or make other distributions on, redeem or repurchase our capital stock; (4) prepay, redeem or repurchase certain of our indebtedness; (5) enter into certain change of control transactions; (6) make investments in entities that we do not control, including equity method investments and joint ventures; (7) enter into certain asset sale transactions, including divestiture of certain company assets and divestiture of capital stock of wholly-owned subsidiaries; (8) enter into certain transactions with affiliates; (9) enter into secured financing arrangements; (10) enter into sale and leaseback transactions; (11) change our fiscal year; and (12) enter into substantially different lines of business. These covenants may limit our ability to effectively operate our businesses or maximize stockholder value. Any failure to comply with the restrictions of our Amended and Restated Credit Agreement 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.
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, including in light of the uncertainty related to volume trends. 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, sales of equity-linked securities, public or private equity offerings or otherwise. Our ability to arrange financing or refinancing and the cost of such financing or refinancing 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.
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There can be no assurance that financing or refinancing 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 adversely affect our ability to operate our business. 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. Recent increases in interest rates have significantly increased our interest expense, and further increases in interest rates would result in additional interest expense, which would adversely impact our financial performance. 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, or sales of equity-linked securities, could cause earnings or ownership dilution to your shareholding interests in our company.
We are exposed to interest rate fluctuations.
Our floating rate indebtedness and the potential refinancing of fixed 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 floating interest rates relates primarily to our borrowings under the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement.
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. Additionally, recent interest rate increases have generally increased the cost of debt and we have been, and may in the future be, required to pay higher interest rates on new fixed rate indebtedness we have incurred and may incur in the future in comparison to the interest rates payable on our prior and currently outstanding fixed rate indebtedness, including in connection with the refinancing of such indebtedness. 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.
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 or convertible instruments 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-linked 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.
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 sheets as of September 30, 2024 contained goodwill and intangible assets, net totaling $2.9 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, travel supplier capacity and load factors, future price levels, rates of growth including long-term growth rates, rates of increase in operating expenses, cost of revenue and taxes, and changes in realization of estimated cost-saving initiatives could result in material impairment charges.
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”)
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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. 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 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 must 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 or magnitude 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, including the estimation of valuation allowances. Such changes could result in an increase or decrease in the effective tax rate applicable to all or a portion of our income or losses which would impact our profitability. We consider the undistributed capital investments in our foreign subsidiaries to be indefinitely reinvested as of September 30, 2024, and, accordingly, have not provided deferred taxes on any outside basis differences for most subsidiaries.
We establish reserves for our potential liability for U.S. and non-U.S. taxes, including sales, occupancy and Value Added Taxes (“VAT”), consistent with applicable accounting principles and considering all current facts and circumstances. We also establish reserves when required relating to the 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.
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. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released Model Rules for a global minimum tax rate of 15% that would apply to multinational entities. Over 140 countries have agreed to enact legislation to implement these rules, with several already enacting domestic laws to do so. In some countries where we operate the new rules are effective in the year 2024 with more expected in the year 2025. We are closely monitoring developments and evaluating the impacts these new rules will have on our tax rate. Additionally, several countries, primarily Canada and in Europe, have proposed or adopted DST on revenue earned by multinational companies from the provision of certain digital services, such as the use of an online marketplace, regardless of
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physical presence. We continue to evaluate the potential effects that the DST may have on our operations, cash flows and results of operations. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity Outlook.” The future total impact of DST, including on our global operations, is uncertain, as additional countries enact a DST, and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected.
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 $73 million as of December 31, 2023. With approximately 3,600 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, or to avoid certain funding-based benefit restrictions, we may need to make additional pension contributions above what is currently estimated or provide security to the plan, which could reduce the cash available for our businesses.
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.
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.
ITEM 2. UNREGISTERED SALES OF EQUITY SECURITIES AND USE OF PROCEEDS
Share repurchases are made pursuant to a multi-year share repurchase program (the “Share Repurchase Program”) authorized by our board of directors on February 6, 2017. This program was announced on February 7, 2017 and allows for the purchase of up to $500 million of outstanding shares of our common stock in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market, or otherwise. There were no shares repurchased during the third quarter of 2024. On March 16, 2020, we announced the suspension of share repurchases under the Share Repurchase Program in conjunction with certain cash management measures we undertook as a result of the market conditions caused by COVID-19. As of September 30, 2024, the Share Repurchase Program remains suspended and approximately $287 million remains authorized for repurchases.
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ITEM 5. OTHER INFORMATION
(a)On October 28, 2024, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Sabre Corporation (the “Company”) adopted and approved, effective immediately, amended and restated bylaws of the Company (as amended and restated, the “Amended and Restated Bylaws”). The Amended and Restated Bylaws, among other things:
•revise and clarify the scope of certain procedures and disclosure requirements set forth in the bylaw provisions for stockholders to provide advance notice of director nominations and business proposals to be brought at a meeting of stockholders (other than proposals submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-8 under the Exchange Act);
•revise the majority voting provision to clarify when an election will be deemed contested;
•establish that special meetings of the Board may be called by the Chairman of the Board, the Chief Executive Officer, or a majority of the full Board (rather than by the Chairman of the Board, the Chief Executive Officer or any two directors); and
•make certain administrative, modernizing, clarifying and conforming changes, including making updates to reflect recent amendments to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.
The foregoing summary of the Amended and Restated Bylaws does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Amended and Restated Bylaws, which is attached as Exhibit 3.2 to this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and incorporated herein by reference.
(b)During the three months ended September 30, 2024, none of the Company’s directors or executive officers adopted or terminated any contract, instruction or written plan for the purchase or sale of Company securities that was intended to satisfy the affirmative defense conditions of Rule 10b5-1(c) or any “non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement.”
ITEM 6. EXHIBITS
The following exhibits are filed as part of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Inline XBRL Instance Document - the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document.
Cover Page Interactive Data File - the cover page interactive data file does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document.
_________________
† Indicates management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.
* Filed herewith
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SIGNATURE
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 thereunto duly authorized.
SABRE CORPORATION
(Registrant)
Date:
October 31, 2024
By:
/s/ Michael Randolfi
Michael Randolfi
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer