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BASIS OF PRESENTATION
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
BASIS OF PRESENTATION
BASIS OF PRESENTATION
 
Management of The Priceline Group Inc. (the "Company") is responsible for the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements included in this document.  The Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP") and include all normal and recurring adjustments that management of the Company considers necessary for a fair presentation of its financial position and operating results.  The Company prepared the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements following the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission for interim reporting.  As permitted under those rules, the Company condensed or omitted certain footnotes or other financial information that are normally required by GAAP for annual financial statements.  These statements should be read in combination with the Consolidated Financial Statements in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014.
 
The Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, including its primary brands of Booking.com, priceline.com, KAYAK, agoda.com and rentalcars.com and since its acquisition on July 24, 2014, OpenTable, Inc. ("OpenTable"). All inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.  The functional currency of the Company's foreign subsidiaries is generally the respective local currency.  Assets and liabilities are translated into U.S. Dollars at the rate of exchange existing at the balance sheet date.  Income statement amounts are translated at the average exchange rates for the period.  Translation gains and losses are included as a component of "Accumulated other comprehensive loss" in the accompanying Unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheets.  Foreign currency transaction gains and losses are included in the Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Operations in "Foreign currency transactions and other."
 
Revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities can vary during each quarter of the year.  Therefore, the results and trends in these interim financial statements may not be the same as those for the full year.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements
 
In April 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued a new accounting update which changes the presentation of debt issuance costs in our financial statements. Under this new guidance, debt issuance costs will be presented in our balance sheets as a direct deduction from the related debt liability rather than as an asset. This accounting change is consistent with the current presentation under U.S. GAAP for debt discounts and it also converges the guidance under U.S. GAAP with that in the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). Debt issuance costs will reduce the proceeds from debt borrowings in our cash flow statement instead of being presented as a separate caption in the financing section of that statement. Amortization of debt issuance costs will continue to be reported as interest expense in our income statements. This accounting update does not affect the current accounting guidance for the recognition and measurement of debt issuance costs. This update is effective for public business entities for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2015. Early adoption is allowed for all entities for financial statements that have not been previously issued.
In April 2015, the FASB issued a new accounting update which requires a customer to determine whether a cloud computing arrangement contains a software license. The accounting update cites software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as a service and other similar hosting arrangements as examples of cloud computing arrangements. A software license arrangement exists if both of the following criteria are met: (1) the customer has a contractual right to take possession of the underlying software without significant penalty and (2) it is feasible for the customer to run the software on their own hardware or to contract with another party unrelated to the vendor to run the software. If the arrangement meets both of these criteria, the customer would need to identify what portion of the cost relates to purchasing the software and what portion relates to paying for the service of hosting the software. The purchased software would be accounted for using the internal-use software guidance and the service costs would be accounted for as an operating expense. If the arrangement does not meet both of the criteria, the cost is an operating expense for a service contract. The guidance in this update does not change the accounting for a service contract. The update is effective for public business entities for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2015. Early adoption is allowed for all entities. The Company is currently evaluating the impact on its consolidated financial statements of adopting this new guidance.
In May 2014, the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") issued a new accounting standard on the recognition of revenue from contracts with customers that is designed to create greater comparability for financial statement users across industries and jurisdictions. The core principle of the standard is that an "entity recognizes revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services." Additionally, the new guidance specified the accounting for some costs to obtain or fulfill a contract with a customer. The new standard will also require enhanced disclosures. The accounting standard is effective for public entities for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2016. In April 2015, the FASB issued an exposure draft which proposes to defer the effective date of the new revenue standard to annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017 with early adoption permitted as of the original effective date. The Company is currently evaluating the impact on its consolidated financial statements of adopting this new guidance.
In April 2014, the FASB issued an accounting update which amended the definition of a discontinued operation. The new definition limits discontinued operations reporting to disposals of components of an entity that represent strategic shifts that have or will have a major effect on an entity's operations and financial results. The new definition includes an acquired business that is classified as held for sale at the date of acquisition. The accounting update requires new disclosures of both discontinued operations and a disposal of an individually significant component of an entity. The accounting update is effective for annual and interim periods beginning on or after December 15, 2014. The Company adopted this update in the first quarter of 2015 and this accounting update did not have an impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements.