It was Halloween evening. The kids were out trick-or treating and the first pitch of game three of the baseball World Series, weather-permitting, was about an hour away.
The perfect nerdy moment to peruse Expedia Inc.'s latest SEC filing.
There's lots there, depending on your vice, but here's what hit me.
- Air was 12% of revenue in third-quarter 2009, and with booking-fee and capacity cuts, that percentage likely will be trending downward in coming months and years.
- Advertising and media was 10% of revenue, and that is definitely trending way up. In fact, car and cruise together were 14% of revenue so perhaps Expedia's advertising and media business, which still is in its relative infancy, will first eclipse air as a category, and then overtake car and cruise before long. Expedia's pending purchase of metasearch engine Kuxun amidst reports that Expedia will pour $50 million into China as part of its China strategy, merely typifies the golden era of advertising and media.
- The hotel business, including the merchant model ($594 million) and agency model ($175 milion) was 64% of revenue in third-quarter 2009. Between standalone hotel sales and vacation packages, this is the heart of the business. It is difficult for me to guesstimate whether this would be a decreasing or an increasing percentage of revenue in the years ahead. Expedia is building out its agency-hotel model business for Venere and hotels.com in Europe and Asia Pacific, but there are too many variables in the hotel business to look into crystal balls. For example, with the outcome of the tax fights in the U.S. so difficult to predict, who knows how viable the merchant model will be for Expedia and other online travel agencies a few years from now?
- Expedia's third-quarter revenue from its U.S. businesses amounted to 65% of revenue and its international business was 35%. Expedia aims to get that to 50% to 50%. No big surprise here. All the global stuff is getting more important.
- On the expense side in the third-quarter 2009, credit-card processing costs, including fraud, merchant fees and charge backs, were $54 million. That was substantially more than the $35 million Expedia Inc. spent in data center and other costs. Those credit card costs likely will get increased attention from intermediaries like Expedia and airlines, including United Airlines.
Enough of these Expedia revenue and expense statistics.
It's onto the more important numbers. How will tonight's Yankees-Phillies game impact Andy Pettitte's Earned Run Average?