Sabre Holdings, owners of Travelocity, Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions, is to be taken over by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and TexasPacific Group (TPG) for $32.75 (£16.60) per share.
The $5bn (£2.5bn) deal includes the assumption of $550m (£279m) in net debt.
Sabre was established in 1959 based on a conversation between the then president of American Airlines, C.R. Smith, and a senior sales representative from IBM, R. Blair Smith. The two met on an American Airlines flight from LA to New York in 1953, and discussed the possibility of creating a data processing system to create and manage airline seat reservations and provide flight information electronically. Sabre , whose name stands for Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment, was owned by American Airlines' parent company AMR until 2000. Its portfolio has grown considerably to include well-known brands such as lastminute.com, GetThere and ShowTickets.com
”Sabre has a remarkable track record of pioneering and delivering best-in-class technology solutions for the global travel industry,” Silver Lake Partners managing director Greg Mondre said. ”We look forward to working with Sabre”s talented management team as they continue to deploy technology as a source of competitive advantage and value-add for customers.”
Sabre Holdings chairman and CEO Sam Gilliland said: ”After a thorough assessment, we concluded that this transaction represents a compelling outcome for our shareholders, customers and employees. We are excited about the ability to deliver substantial value today to our shareholders, and we look forward to a strong future, partnering with two pre-eminent investment firms that are closely aligned with our strategy and long-term objectives.”