Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.
Agreement and Plan of Merger
On April 15, 2019, Liberty Expedia Holdings, Inc. (the “
Company
” or “
LEXPE
”) entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “
Merger Agreement
”), by and among the Company, Expedia Group, Inc. (“
Parent
” or “
Expedia Group
”),
LEMS I LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of
Parent (“
Merger LLC
”), and LEMS II Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Merger LLC (“
Merger Sub
”).
The Merger Agreement provides for, among other things and subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain specified conditions set forth
therein, (i) the merger of Merger Sub with and into LEXPE (the “
Merger
”), with LEXPE surviving the Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Merger LLC, and (ii) immediately
following the Merger, the merger of LEXPE (as the surviving corporation in the Merger) with and into Merger LLC (the “
Upstream Merger
”, and together with the Merger, the “
Combination
”), with Merger LLC surviving the Upstream Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent.
A copy of
the joint press release announcing the Combination is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated by reference herein.
Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, each share of Series A common stock, par value $0.01 per share, of LEXPE and Series B common stock, par value $0.01 per
share, of LEXPE (together, the “
LEXPE Common Stock
”) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the Merger (the “
Effective Time
”) (except for shares held by LEXPE as treasury stock or held directly by Expedia Group) will be converted into the right to receive 0.36 of a share of common stock, par value $0.0001
per share, of Expedia Group (the “
Expedia Group Common Stock
”), plus cash (without interest) in lieu of any fractional shares of Expedia Group Common Stock (the “
Merger Consideration
”). At the closing of the Combination, former holders of LEXPE Common Stock are expected to own in the aggregate shares of Expedia Group Common Stock
representing approximately 14% of the total number of outstanding shares of Expedia Group Common Stock and shares of Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, of Expedia Group (the “
Expedia Group Class B Common Stock
”), based on approximately 140 million shares of Expedia Group Common Stock and approximately 5.7 million shares of Expedia Group Class B Common Stock
currently
expected to be outstanding at the closing of the Combination.
As of the Effective Time, each then-outstanding stock option with respect to shares of LEXPE Common Stock will be cancelled and converted into the right to
receive the Merger Consideration in respect of each share subject to such option (after deducting a number of shares sufficient to cover the aggregate option exercise price), less applicable tax withholding. As of the Effective Time, each
then-outstanding restricted stock award and restricted stock unit award with respect to shares of LEXPE Common Stock will be cancelled and converted into the right to receive the Merger Consideration in respect of each share of LEXPE Common Stock
subject to such award, less applicable tax
withholding
.
The closing of the Combination is subject to certain mutual conditions, including (1) the adoption of the Merger Agreement by the holders of at least a
majority of the aggregate voting power of the outstanding shares of LEXPE Common Stock, voting together as a single class; (2) any required approvals under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended in respect of the
Combination and other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement; (3) the absence of any order or law that has the effect
of enjoining or otherwise prohibiting the closing of
the Combination or any of the other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement and related transaction documents; (4) the approval for listing of the shares of Expedia Group Common Stock to be issued as Merger Consideration on the NASDAQ
Global Select Market and the effectiveness under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “
Securities Act
”), of a registration statement on Form S-4 with respect to such shares; and (5) the delivery of an opinion by Skadden, Arps,
Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP to LEXPE to the effect that the Combination will not impact the tax treatment of the split off of LEXPE by Qurate Retail, Inc., a Delaware corporation (formerly known as Liberty Interactive Corporation, “
Qurate
Retail
”) on November 4, 2016
. The respective obligation of each party to consummate the Combination is also conditioned upon (x) the delivery of an opinion from such party’s tax counsel to the effect that the Combination will
qualify as a “reorganization” for U.S. federal income tax purposes and (y) the other party’s representations and warranties being true and correct (subject to certain materiality and material adverse effect qualifications), and the other party
having performed in all material respects its obligations under the Merger Agreement. Expedia Group’s obligation to consummate the Combination is further conditioned upon the satisfaction of certain conditions to the completion of the exchange
pursuant to the Exchange Agreement as described below. The Combination does not require the approval of Expedia
Group’s
stockholders.
The Merger Agreement includes certain representations, warranties and covenants of LEXPE, Expedia Group, Merger Sub and Merger LLC, including, among other
things, covenants by LEXPE to (i) conduct its business in the ordinary course consistent with past practice and (ii) use reasonable best efforts to preserve intact its business organization and goodwill and relationships with material customers,
suppliers, licensors, licensees, distributors and other third parties, during the period between the execution of the Merger Agreement and the Effective Time.
In addition, LEXPE has agreed to non-solicitation obligations with respect to any third-party acquisition proposals, and has agreed to certain restrictions on
its and its representatives’ ability to respond to any such proposals. The Board of Directors of LEXPE (the “
LEXPE Board
”) has agreed to recommend that its stockholders
vote in favor of the adoption of the Merger Agreement, subject to the right to change its recommendation in response to a superior proposal or an intervening event (each as defined in the Merger Agreement), in each case if the LEXPE Board
determines in good faith that a failure to change its recommendation would be inconsistent with its fiduciary duties. In the event that the LEXPE Board changes its recommendation, Expedia Group has the right to either (x) require LEXPE to hold a
stockholder vote on the transaction or (y) terminate the Merger Agreement.
The Merger Agreement includes termination provisions in favor of both Expedia Group and LEXPE and provides that, in connection with a termination of the
Merger Agreement under specified circumstances, including Expedia Group’s termination of the Merger Agreement following a change of recommendation of the LEXPE Board, but prior to a vote by LEXPE’s stockholders on the transaction, LEXPE will be
required to pay Expedia Group a termination fee of $72 million. In addition, either LEXPE or Expedia Group may terminate the Merger Agreement if (i) the Combination has not been consummated by October 15, 2019 (subject to extensions of up to six
months in certain circumstances), (ii) the issuance by a court or other governmental authority of a final, non-appealable order or the taking of any other action permanently restraining, enjoining or otherwise prohibiting the Combination, which
action is final and non-appealable, (iii) the approval of LEXPE’s stockholders is not obtained at a meeting thereof called for the purpose of adopting the Merger Agreement or (iv) the other party has breached any representation, warranty or
covenant causing the failure of a closing condition (subject to a cure period).
At the closing of the Combination, pursuant to the Merger Agreement, each of the three directors serving on the Expedia Group Board of Directors who were
nominated by LEXPE is expected to resign from the Expedia Group Board of Directors.
The Expedia Group Board of Directors approved the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby following the recommendation of a special
committee (the “
Expedia Group Special Committee
”) consisting solely of independent and disinterested directors, each of whom had been elected by the holders of Expedia
Group Common Stock voting together as a class (without the vote of the Expedia Group Class B Common Stock), to which the Expedia Group Board of Directors had delegated exclusive authority to consider and negotiate the Merger Agreement and the
transactions contemplated thereby (including, without limitation, the Exchange Agreement, the Voting Agreement and new governance arrangements between Expedia Group and Barry Diller (“
Mr. Diller
”) and the transactions contemplated thereby,
as described below).
Based on a recommendation of a transaction committee consisting solely of the Common Stock Directors (as defined in LEXPE’s restated certificate of
incorporation) of LEXPE and following the termination of the Proxy Swap Arrangements (as defined below), the LEXPE Board approved the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby and agreed to recommend that the LEXPE stockholders
adopt the Merger Agreement, subject to certain exceptions set forth in the Merger Agreement.
The foregoing description of the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby does not purport to be complete and is subject to, and qualified
in its entirety by, the full text of the Merger Agreement, which is filed as Exhibit 2.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and incorporated herein by reference.
The Merger Agreement and the above description have been included to provide investors and security holders with information regarding the terms of the Merger
Agreement and the Combination. It is not intended to provide any other factual information about Parent, LEXPE or their respective subsidiaries or affiliates, including Merger LLC and Merger Sub, or equityholders. The representations, warranties
and covenants set forth in the Merger Agreement were made only for the purposes of that agreement and as of specific dates, were made solely for the benefit of the parties to the Merger Agreement (and the express third party beneficiaries described
therein), may be subject to limitations agreed upon by the contracting parties, including being qualified by confidential disclosures made for the purposes of allocating contractual risk between the parties to the Merger Agreement instead of
establishing these matters as facts, as well as by information contained in each party’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and may be subject to standards of materiality applicable to the contracting parties that differ
from those applicable to investors. Investors should be aware that the representations, warranties and covenants or any description thereof may not reflect the actual state of facts or condition of Parent, LEXPE, Merger Sub, Merger LLC, or any of
their respective subsidiaries, affiliates, businesses, or equityholders. Moreover, information concerning the subject matter of the representations, warranties and covenants may change after the date of the Merger Agreement, which subsequent
information may or may not be fully reflected in public disclosures by the Company. Accordingly, representations and warranties in the Merger Agreement should not be relied on as characterization of the actual state of facts about Parent or LEXPE.
Amendment No. 2 to Transaction Agreement
Pursuant to the irrevocable proxy granted by LEXPE to Mr. Diller under the Amended and Restated Stockholders Agreement, dated as of December 20, 2011, by and
among LEXPE, certain wholly owned subsidiaries of LEXPE and Mr. Diller, as amended as of November 4, 2016 (the “
Existing Stockholders Agreement
”), Mr. Diller generally has
the right to vote the shares of Expedia Group Common Stock and Expedia Group Class B Common Stock held by LEXPE and its subsidiaries (the “
Diller Proxy
”), which shares
represent approximately 53% of the total voting power of all shares of Expedia Group Common Stock and Expedia Group Class B Common Stock, based on a total of 134,390,305 shares of Expedia Group Common Stock and 12,799,999 shares of Expedia Group
Class B Common Stock outstanding as of January 25, 2019, as reported in Expedia Group’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, filed on February 8, 2019. Pursuant to the Assignment Agreement, dated as of November 4, 2016,
by and between LEXPE and Mr. Diller, Mr. Diller assigned the Diller Proxy to LEXPE (the “
Diller Assignment
”), and, pursuant to the Proxy and Voting Agreement, dated as of
November 4, 2016, by and among John C. Malone and Leslie Malone (collectively, the “
Malone Group
”) and Mr. Diller, the Malone Group granted to Mr. Diller a proxy over the shares of LEXPE Common Stock owned by it (the “
Malone Proxy
,” and together with the Diller Assignment, the “
Proxy Swap Arrangements
”).
On April 15, 2019 and prior to LEXPE’s entry into the Merger Agreement, Barry Diller, the Company, Qurate Retail, and the Malone Group entered into Amendment
No. 2 to Amended and Restated Transaction Agreement (“
Amendment No. 2 to Transaction Agreement
”), which amends the Amended and Restated Transaction Agreement, dated as of
September 22, 2016, as amended by the letter agreement dated as of March 6, 2018 (the “
Transaction Agreement
”), providing for the immediate termination of the Transaction
Agreement, which automatically resulted in the termination of the Proxy Swap Arrangements.
The foregoing description of Amendment No. 2 to Transaction Agreement does not purport to be
complete and is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, Amendment No. 2 to Transaction Agreement, a copy of which is attached
hereto
as Exhibit 10.1 to this Current
Report on Form 8-K and incorporated herein by reference.
Exchange Agreement
Simultaneously with the entry into the Merger Agreement, on April 15, 2019, the Company, Parent, The Diller Foundation d/b/a The Diller – von Furstenberg
Family Foundation (the “
Family Foundation
”) and Mr. Diller entered into an Exchange Agreement (the “
Exchange
Agreement
”), pursuant to which (and agreed by Mr. Diller to be deemed to be in recognition and in lieu of Mr. Diller’s existing rights under the Existing Governance Agreement (as defined below) and the Existing Stockholders
Agreement), immediately prior to and conditioned upon the closing of the Combination, Mr. Diller and, if the Family Foundation so elects, the Family Foundation, are expected to exchange with LEXPE up to a number of shares of Expedia Group Common
Stock equal to the sum of (1) 5,523,452 shares of Expedia Group Common Stock (which is equal to the total number of shares of Expedia Group Common Stock held by Mr. Diller and the Family Foundation, in the aggregate, as of April 15, 2019) plus (2)
the number of shares of Expedia Group Common Stock acquired by Mr. Diller prior to the exchange pursuant to the exercise of up to 537,500 vested options to purchase shares of Expedia Group Common Stock held by Mr. Diller as of April 15, 2019 (after
deducting a number of shares sufficient to cover the aggregate exercise price), for the same number of shares of Expedia Group Class B Common Stock held by LEXPE (the shares of Expedia Group Class B Common Stock acquired by Mr. Diller and the
Family Foundation pursuant to the Exchange Agreement, collectively referred to as the “
Original Shares
”). Assuming the exchange by Mr. Diller and the Family Foundation of
a total of approximately 5.7 million shares of Expedia Group Common Stock (based on the net exercise of his 537,500 vested options assuming an Expedia Group Common Stock share price of $125.45, the closing price of Expedia Group Common Stock on
April 15, 2019) for an equal number of shares of Expedia Group Class B Common Stock, the Original Shares would represent approximately 29% of the total voting power of all shares of Expedia Group Common Stock and Expedia Group Class B Common Stock,
based on approximately 140 million shares of Expedia Group Common Stock and approximately 5.7 million shares of Expedia Group Class B Common Stock currently expected to be outstanding at the closing of the Combination.
The foregoing description of the Exchange Agreement does not purport to be complete and is
subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, the Exchange Agreement, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit 10.2 to this Current Report
on
Form 8-K and incorporated herein by
reference.
Voting Agreement regarding the Company Shares
In connection with the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement and following the termination of the Malone Proxy, on April 15, 2019, the Malone
Group entered into a voting agreement (the “
Voting Agreement
”) with Expedia Group, pursuant to which the Malone Group has committed, subject to certain conditions, to vote
shares of LEXPE Common Stock representing approximately 32% of the total voting power of the issued and outstanding shares of LEXPE Common Stock as of January 31, 2019 in favor of the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby at
any meeting of the stockholders of LEXPE called to vote upon the Merger. In addition, the Malone Group has agreed to vote the shares of LEXPE Common Stock subject to the Voting Agreement against any Alternative Company Transaction (as defined in
the Voting Agreement) and certain other matters. The Voting Agreement will terminate upon, among other events, the termination of the Merger Agreement in accordance with its terms. Under the Voting Agreement, Expedia Group agreed to indemnify the
Malone Group for losses incurred in connection with or arising out of the Voting Agreement, including, subject to certain conditions, reasonable fees and expenses of the Malone Group incurred in the defense of any such claim brought by a third
party.
The foregoing description of the Voting Agreement does not purport to be complete and is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, the Voting Agreement, a
copy of which is attached as Exhibit 10.3 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and incorporated herein by reference.
Other Agreements
Simultaneously with the Company’s entry into the Merger Agreement, certain additional related agreements were entered into, including:
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A Stockholders Agreement Termination Agreement, by and among Mr. Diller, the Company and certain wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company, pursuant to which the Existing
Stockholders Agreement (including the Diller Proxy) will terminate at the closing of the Combination;
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A Governance Agreement Termination Agreement, by and among Mr. Diller, the Company, Parent and certain wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company, pursuant to which the
Amended and Restated Governance Agreement, dated as of December 20, 2011, as amended, among the Company, Parent and Mr. Diller (the “
Existing Governance Agreement
”)
will terminate at the closing of the Combination;
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An Assumption and Joinder Agreement to Tax Sharing Agreement, by and among the Company, Parent and Qurate Retail (the “
Tax Sharing Agreement Joinder Agreement
”), pursuant to which Parent agrees to assume, effective at the closing of the Combination, the Company’s rights and obligations under the Tax Sharing Agreement, dated as
of November 4, 2016, by and between Qurate Retail and the Company (the “
Tax Sharing Agreement
”);
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An Assumption Agreement Concerning Transaction Agreement Obligations, by and among the Company, Parent, Qurate Retail, Mr. Diller and the Malone Group (the “
Transaction Agreement Assumption Agreement
”), pursuant to which Parent agrees to assume, effective at the closing of the Combination, certain of the Company’s
rights and obligations under the Transaction Agreement which survive the termination of the Transaction Agreement; and
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An Assumption and Joinder Agreement to Reorganization Agreement by and among the Company, Parent and Qurate Retail (the “
Reorganization Agreement Joinder Agreement
”), pursuant to which Parent agrees to assume, effective at the closing of the Combination, the Company’s rights and obligations under the Reorganization Agreement,
dated as of October 26, 2016, by and between Qurate Retail and the Company (the “
Reorganization Agreement
”).
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The foregoing descriptions of the Stockholders Agreement Termination Agreement, the Governance Agreement Termination Agreement, the Tax Sharing Agreement
Joinder Agreement, the Tax Sharing Agreement, the Transaction Agreement Assumption Agreement, the Reorganization Agreement Joinder Agreement and the Reorganization Agreement do not purport to be complete and are subject to, and qualified in their
entirety by, the applicable agreements, copies of which are attached hereto as Exhibits 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 and 10.10, respectively, and are incorporated herein by reference.