Expedia's real corporate philosophy is cheapness. Corners are cut everywhere: projects are overly ambitious in scope and then absurdly underfunded and under-resourced, compensation is non-competitive (especially in the Seattle market), licenses and contracts are negotiated down to levels that can't possibly be sustainable for partners and vendors. Hardware is often ancient; the laptop that I was issued had a label on it that proclaimed it was Windows 7 compatible. Engineering talent is adequate, but project management is so lax as to be non-existent; release schedules are rarely adhered to, if they are created at all.