Sabre Holdings has bought the UK online agency lastminute.com for £577m.
The acquisition will be made by Sabre's indirect subsidiary Travelocity Europe and the deal is due to be completed by the end of July.
Brent Hoberman, founder and current ceo of lastminute.com, will take over as ceo for the combined operations of lastminute.com and Travelocity Europe. The current president of Travelocity Europe, Damon Tassone will be his deputy.
In a statement, Sabre, one of the world's leading GDSs, said the acquisition of lastminute.com would give Travelocity Europe a “greater scale and the leading position in the growing European online marketplace.”
Sam Gilliland, Sabre's Holdings chairman and ceo, said: “The anticipated acquisition of lastminute.com directly supports Sabre's strategy of extending our role as a travel retailer.
“We're extremely pleased with the prospect of having lastminute.com, with its highly-regarded brands and well-established customer base, as a part of Travelocity, including Travelocity Europe.
“We expect this combination would provide us greater opportunity to profit from the fast-growing European online segment.”
Mr Hoberman said: “Over the past seven years, we have built a business from scratch into one of Europe's leading travel and leisure groups, with over seven million customers and total transactions worth £992 million for the financial year ended September 30, 2004.”
The take-over of lastminute.com by Sabre represents a growing intensity in the battle for the online market in Europe and the spreading of the wings of the GDSs.
GDSs are both changing and expanding their role in the face of likely de-regulation in Europe next year.
Sabre's rivals Amadeus bought Opodo and Cendant Travel Services which owns another major GDS Galileo bought Orbitz, a US online agency, last year.
Expedia, another US online agency recently bought the UK agency e-bookers while its business travel arm, Expedia Corporate Travel bought another UK agency World Travel Management also last year.