BASIS OF PRESENTATION

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Management of Booking Holdings 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, 2019.

The Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The functional currency of the Company's subsidiaries is generally the respective local currency. For international operations, 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 monthly average exchange rates applicable for the period. Translation gains and losses are included as a component of "Accumulated other comprehensive loss" in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. Foreign currency transaction gains and losses are included in "Foreign currency transactions and other" in the Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Operations.

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 any subsequent quarter or the full year, especially during the periods that are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of COVID-19

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan, China, and has since spread to other regions, including Europe and the United States. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak was a global pandemic (the "COVID-19 pandemic"). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments around the world have implemented, and continue to implement, a variety of measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including travel restrictions and bans, instructions to residents to practice social distancing, quarantine advisories, shelter-in-place orders and required closures of non-essential businesses. These government mandates have forced many of the customers on whom the Company’s business relies, including hotels and other accommodation providers, airlines and restaurants, to seek government support in order to continue operating, to curtail drastically their service offerings or to cease operations entirely. Further, these measures have materially adversely affected, and may further adversely affect, consumer sentiment and discretionary spending patterns, economies and financial markets, and the Company’s workforce, operations and customers.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic conditions and government orders have resulted in a material decrease in consumer spending and an unprecedented decline in travel and restaurant activities and consumer demand for related services. The Company’s financial results and prospects are almost entirely dependent on the sale of such travel and restaurant-related services. The Company’s results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 have been significantly and negatively impacted as compared to the corresponding period in 2019.

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

Given the volatility in global markets and the financial difficulties faced by many of the Company's travel service provider and restaurant customers and marketing affiliates, the Company has increased its provision for expected credit losses (also referred to as provision for bad debt or provision for uncollectible accounts) on receivables from and prepayments to its travel service provider and restaurant customers and marketing affiliates (see Note 7). Moreover, due to the high level of cancellations of existing reservations, the Company has incurred, and expects to continue to incur, higher than normal cash outlays to refund consumers for prepaid reservations (see Note 2). Any material increase in the Company’s provision for expected credit losses and any material increase in cash outlays to consumers would have a corresponding adverse effect on the Company's results of operations and related cash flows.

As a result of the deterioration of the Company’s business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company has determined that a portion of its goodwill has experienced a decline in value at March 31, 2020 and recorded a significant impairment charge (see Note 8). In addition, the Company has recorded a significant impairment charge for one of the Company's long-term investments due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business of the investee and the Company's estimate of the resulting decline in the value of the investment (see Notes 5 and 6). It is possible that the Company may also have to record additional significant impairment charges in future periods.

See Note 9 for additional information about the Company’s existing debt arrangements, including $4.1 billion of debt issued in April 2020. The Company’s continued access to sources of liquidity depends on multiple factors, including global economic conditions, the condition of global financial markets, the availability of sufficient amounts of financing, the Company’s operating performance and its credit ratings. If the Company’s credit ratings were to be downgraded, or financing sources were to ascribe higher risk to its rating levels, the Company or its industry, the Company’s 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 the Company’s obligations, or that it will be available on commercially reasonable terms, in which case the Company may need to seek other sources of funding.

The extent of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s business, results of operations, cash flows and growth prospects is highly uncertain and will ultimately depend on future developments. These include, but are not limited to, the severity, extent and duration of the pandemic and its impact on the travel and restaurant industries and consumer spending more broadly. Even if economic and operating conditions for the Company’s business improve, the Company cannot predict the long-term effects of the pandemic on its business or the travel and restaurant industries as a whole. If the travel and restaurant industries are fundamentally changed by the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that are detrimental to the Company’s operating model, the Company’s business may continue to be adversely affected even as the broader global economy recovers.

Certain governments have passed or are considering legislation to help businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic through loans, wage subsidies, tax relief or other financial aid.  Subsequent to March 31, 2020. the Company is participating in, or has applied to participate in, the United Kingdom's job retention scheme, the Netherlands' wage subsidy program and certain other jurisdictions' programs, and is assessing whether it will take advantage of any other offerings.

Change in Presentation and Reclassification

In the year ended December 31, 2019 and prior periods, the Company's marketing expenses were presented in the Consolidated Statements of Operations as "Performance marketing" and "Brand marketing" expenses. In the first quarter of 2020, the Company changed the presentation of marketing expenses by combining "Performance marketing" and "Brand marketing" into "Marketing expenses" in the Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Operations because of the increased convergence of performance marketing and brand marketing channels in areas including digital marketing and the Company's view of overall marketing expenditure as its investment in customer acquisition and retention.  The change in presentation had no impact on operating income or net income. The Unaudited Statement of Operations for the three months ended March 31, 2019 has been recast to conform to the current year presentation.

In addition to the change in presentation for marketing expenses, certain amounts from prior periods have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements Adopted

Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment

In January 2017, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued a new accounting update to simplify the test for goodwill impairment. The revised guidance eliminates the previously required step two of the goodwill impairment test, which required a hypothetical purchase price allocation to measure goodwill impairment. Under the revised guidance, a goodwill impairment loss will be measured at the amount by which a reporting unit’s carrying amount exceeds its fair value,

not to exceed the carrying amount of goodwill. The Company adopted this update in the first quarter of 2020 and applied it on a prospective basis (see Note 8 for further information on the goodwill impairment test performed at March 31, 2020).

Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments

In June 2016, the FASB issued a new accounting update on the measurement of credit losses for certain financial assets measured at amortized cost and available-for-sale debt securities. For financial assets measured at amortized cost, this update requires an entity to (1) estimate its lifetime expected credit losses upon recognition of the financial assets and establish an allowance to present the net amount expected to be collected, (2) recognize this allowance and changes in the allowance during subsequent periods through net income and (3) consider relevant information about past events, current conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts in assessing the lifetime expected credit losses. For available-for-sale debt securities, this update made several targeted amendments to the existing other-than-temporary impairment model, including (1) requiring disclosure of the allowance for credit losses, (2) allowing reversals of the previously recognized credit losses until the entity has the intent to sell, is more-likely-than-not required to sell the securities or the maturity of the securities, (3) limiting impairment to the difference between the amortized cost basis and fair value and (4) not allowing entities to consider the length of time that fair value has been less than amortized cost as a factor in evaluating whether a credit loss exists. The Company adopted this update in the first quarter of 2020 and applied this update on a modified retrospective basis. Upon adoption of the new standard on January 1, 2020, the Company recorded a net decrease to its retained earnings of $3 million, net of tax. See Note 7 for further information related to allowance for expected credit losses on accounts receivable and other financial assets and Note 5 for further information related to investments in available-for-sale debt securities.

Other Recent Accounting Pronouncement

Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes

In December 2019, the FASB issued a new accounting update relating to income taxes.  This update provides an exception to the general methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period when a year-to-date loss exceeds the anticipated loss for the year.  This update also (1) requires an entity to recognize a franchise tax (or similar tax) that is partially based on income as an income-based tax and account for any incremental amount incurred as a non-income-based tax, (2) requires an entity to evaluate when a step-up in the tax basis of goodwill should be considered part of the business combination in which goodwill was originally recognized for accounting purposes and when it should be considered a separate transaction, and (3) requires that an entity reflect the effect of an enacted change in tax laws or rates in the annual effective tax rate computation in the interim period that includes the enactment date. 

For public business entities, this update is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020, including interim periods within those fiscal years.  Early adoption is permitted. The amendment related to franchise taxes that are partially based on income should be applied on either a retrospective basis for all periods presented or a modified retrospective basis through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the fiscal year of adoption. All other amendments should be applied on a prospective basis. The Company is currently evaluating the impact to its Consolidated Financial Statements of adopting this update and does not expect it to have a material impact.