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General Information (Policies) | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2016
Accounting Policies [Abstract] |
Basis of Presentation | Basis of Presentation—The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) for interim financial information. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, these financial statements contain all adjustments, consisting of normal recurring accruals, necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods indicated. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any other interim period or for the year ending December 31, 2016. The accompanying interim financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 19, 2016. We consolidate all majority-owned subsidiaries and companies over which we exercise control through majority voting rights. No entities are consolidated due to control through operating agreements, financing agreements, or as the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity. The consolidated financial statements include our accounts after elimination of all significant intercompany balances and transactions. All dollar amounts in the financial statements and the tables in the notes, except per share amounts, are stated in thousands of U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. All amounts in the notes reference results from continuing operations unless otherwise indicated.
Use of Estimates | Use of Estimates—The preparation of these interim financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires that certain amounts be recorded based on estimates and assumptions made by management. Actual results could differ from these estimates and assumptions. Our accounting policies, which consist of significant estimates and assumptions, include, among other things, the estimation of the collectability of accounts receivable, estimation of future cancellations of bookings processed through the Sabre global distribution system (“GDS”), revenue recognition for software arrangements, determination of the fair value of assets and liabilities acquired in a business combination, determination of the fair value of derivatives, the evaluation of the recoverability of the carrying value of intangible assets and goodwill, assumptions utilized in the determination of pension and other postretirement benefit liabilities, estimation of loss contingencies, and estimation of uncertainties surrounding the calculation of our tax assets and liabilities. Our use of estimates and the related accounting policies are discussed in the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 19, 2016.
Stockholders' Equity | Stockholders’ Equity—During the nine months ended September 30, 2016, we issued 4,726,529 shares of our common stock as a result of the exercise and settlement of employee equity-based awards. In addition, we received $28 million in proceeds from the exercise of employee stock-option awards and paid $11 million of income tax withholdings associated with the settlement of employee restricted-stock awards. We paid a quarterly cash dividend on our common stock of $0.13 per share, totaling $108 million, and $0.09 per share, totaling $74 million, during the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. During the nine months ended September 30, 2016, certain of our stockholders sold an aggregate of 20,000,000 shares of our common stock through a secondary public offering. We did not offer any shares or receive any proceeds from this secondary public offering.
Adoption of New Accounting Standard | Adoption of New Accounting Standard—In the first quarter of 2016, we adopted Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting. This guidance was issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") under their initiative to reduce complexity in financial reporting. The amendments of the updated standard include, among other things, the requirement to recognize excess tax benefits (or deficiencies) through earnings, the election of a policy to either estimate forfeitures when determining periodic expense or recognize actual forfeitures when they occur, and an increase in the allowable income tax withholding from the minimum to the maximum statutory rate. In recent years, we have incurred significant excess tax benefits associated with settled equity-based awards that have not been recognized due to certain accounting policy elections we made under the previous accounting standard, combined with the significant amount of our net operating loss carryforwards. As a result of the adoption of ASU 2016-09, we recorded a cumulative-effect adjustment as of January 1, 2016 to increase retained earnings by $92 million with a corresponding increase to deferred tax assets in order to recognize excess tax benefits that can be used to reduce income taxes payable in the future. Effective January 1, 2016, excess tax benefits or deficiencies are recognized in our results of operations and are included in cash flows from operating activities in our statement of cash flows. In accordance with the updated standard, we elected to recognize actual forfeitures of equity-based awards as they occur. As we previously estimated forfeitures to determine stock-based compensation expense, this change resulted in a cumulative-effect adjustment as of January 1, 2016 to reduce retained earnings by $2 million, net of tax. For the nine months ended, September 30, 2016, we recognized $25 million in excess tax benefits associated with employee equity-based awards, as a result of the adoption of this standard. There were no other material impacts to our consolidated financial statements as a result of adopting this updated standard.
Reclassifications | Reclassifications—We reclassified all of our $30 million litigation settlement liability as of December 31, 2015 to other accrued liabilities in our consolidated balance sheet to conform to our current period presentation. As of September 30, 2016, our litigation settlement liability included in other accrued liabilities totaled $6 million.

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