Sabre Corporation Annual Report 2019 Form 10-K (NASDAQ:SABR) Published: February 15th, 2019 PDF generated by stocklight.com UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 10-K ý ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018 or ¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 Sabre Corporation (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) Delaware 001-36422 20-8647322 (State or other jurisdiction (Commission File Number) (I.R.S. Employer of incorporation or organization) Identification No.) 3150 Sabre Drive Southlake, TX 76092 (Address, including zip code, of principal executive offices) (682) 605-1000 (Registrant's telephone number, including area code) Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Common Stock, $0.01 par value The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (Title of class) (Name of exchange on which registered) Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ý No ¨ Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No ý Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ý No ¨ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ý No ¨ Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ý Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” "smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. Large accelerated filer ý Accelerated filer ¨ Non-accelerated filer ¨ Smaller reporting company ¨ ¨ Emerging growth company If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No ý The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates, as of June 29, 2018, was$ 5,819,622,350. As of February 11, 2019, there were 275,405,379 shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding. DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its 2019 annual meeting of stockholders to be held on April 23, 2019, are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Table of Contents Page PART I Item 1. Business 1 Item 1A. Risk Factors 5 Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 23 Item 2. Properties 23 Item 3. Legal Proceedings 23 Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 26 Executive Officers of the Registrant 27 PART II Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities 29 Item 6. Selected Financial Data 30 Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations 38 Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 59 Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 61 Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure 108 Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 109 Item 9B. Other Information 109 PART III Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 110 Item 11. Executive Compensation 110 Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters 110 Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence 111 Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 111 PART IV Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 112 Item 16. Form 10-K Summary 117 FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the section “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7, contains information that may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward- looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts, such as statements regarding our future financial condition or results of operations, our prospects and strategies for future growth, the development and introduction of new products, and the implementation of our strategies. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “expects,” "outlook," “believes,” "provisional," “may,” "intends," “will,” “predicts,” “potential,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” "should,” “plans” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. The forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions and are subject to risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that may cause events or our actual activities or results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future events, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Unless required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events after the date they are made. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, those factors described in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” in Part I, Item 7 “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors Affecting Our Results” and elsewhere in this Annual Report. In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, references to “Sabre,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” “ours” and “us” refer to Sabre Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires. PART I ITEM 1. BUSINESS Overview Sabre Corporation is a Delaware corporation formed in December 2006. On March 30, 2007, Sabre Corporation acquired Sabre Holdings Corporation (“Sabre Holdings”), which is the sole subsidiary of Sabre Corporation. Sabre GLBL Inc. (“Sabre GLBL”) is the principal operating subsidiary and sole direct subsidiary of Sabre Holdings. Sabre GLBL or its direct or indirect subsidiaries conduct all of our businesses. Our principal executive offices are located at 3150 Sabre Drive, Southlake, Texas 76092. We are a leading technology solutions provider to the global travel and tourism industry. We span the breadth of the global travel ecosystem, providing key software and services to a broad range of travel suppliers and travel buyers. We connect the world’s leading travel suppliers, including airlines, hotels, car rental brands, rail carriers, cruise lines and tour operators, with travel buyers in a comprehensive travel marketplace. We also offer travel suppliers an extensive suite of leading software solutions, ranging from airline and hotel reservations systems to high-value marketing and operations solutions, such as planning airline crew schedules, re-accommodating passengers during irregular flight operations and managing day-to-day hotel operations. These solutions allow our customers to market, distribute and sell their products more efficiently, manage their core operations, and deliver enhanced travel experiences. Business Segments Effective the first quarter of 2018, we operate through three business segments: Travel Network, Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions. In conjunction with this change, we have modified the methodology we have historically used to allocate shared corporate technology costs. Each segment now reflects a portion of our shared corporate costs that historically were not allocated to a business unit, based on relative consumption of shared technology infrastructure costs and defined revenue metrics. These changes have no impact on our consolidated results of operations, but result in a decrease of individual segment profitability only. Financial information about our business segments and geographic areas is provided in Note 16. Segment Information, to our