Travelport

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Travelport
Type Private
Industry Travel technology
Founded 2001 (United States)
Headquarters Atlanta, USA
Key people Douglas M Steenland, Non-Executive Chairman;
Gordon Wilson, President and CEO;
Philip Emery, CFO;
Eric Bock, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel;
Kurt Ekert, Chief Commercial Officer
Revenue US$ 2 billion
Employees Approximately 3, 500
Subsidiaries Travelport (includes Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan)[citation needed], Travelport Airline IT Solutions, THOR
Website www.Travelport.com

Travelport is a leading distribution services and e-commerce provider for the global travel industry. The company operates a global distribution system (GDS) business, with three brands: Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan. The GDS business provides aggregation, search and transaction processing services to travel providers and travel agencies, allowing travel agencies to search, compare, process and book itinerary and pricing options across multiple travel providers.

Within the GDS business, Travelport Airline IT Solutions hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions to major airlines to enable them to focus on their core business competencies.

Travelport also has a joint venture ownership of eNett, a global provider of dedicated payment solutions and owns approximately 45% of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a global online travel company.

A privately owned company, headquartered in Atlanta, USA, with reported 2012 net revenue of $2 billion, Travelport has a presence in over 170 countries and approximately 3,500 employees.

History

Travelport traces its origins back to 1971, but its most immediate predecessor, Travel Distribution Services (TDS), was founded in 2001 through the acquisition of Galileo International by TDS's parent, Cendant Corporation. Travelport was formed in August 2006, when Cendant sold Orbitz and Galileo to The Blackstone Group in a deal valued at $4.3 billion.

In April 2006, shortly before Travelport was sold, Cendant hired Jeff Clarke as president and CEO of Travel Distribution Services to lead the sale of the division. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Travelport and chairman of the board of Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. Gordon Wilson was appointed President and CEO of the company and a member of the board of directors of Travelport in June 2011.

Shortly after the Blackstone-led buyout, in December 2006, Travelport struck a deal to buy one of its rivals, Worldspan, for $1.4 billion.[1]

In May 2007 the company filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell a portion of Orbitz Worldwide in an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO was priced on July 20, 2007, opening at $15.00 per share, and closed on July 25, 2007. A month later, Travelport completed the Worldspan deal, integrating Worldspan with Galileo.

By combining operations with Worldspan and streamlining overlapping functions that Travelport had inherited from a string of more than 20 earlier mergers under Cendant, Travelport cut its overhead by $390 million in three years and doubled its cash flow.[2]

On September 19, 2007, Travelport became the first travel company to receive a 100 percent rating on the sixth annual Corporate Equality Index awarded by the American Human Rights Campaign Foundation.[3] Worldspan achieved the 100 percent rating on HRC's Corporate Equality Index in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

On May 5, 2011, Travelport completed the $720m sale of its GTA (Gullivers Travel Associates) business to Kuoni, in line with its strategic plan to focus on maximizing the potential of its core business.

Brands

  • Travelport GDS: Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan
  • Travelport Airline IT Services
  • THOR
  • Sprice.com
  • orbitz.com

References

  1. ↑ David Carey and John E. Morris, King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone (Crown 2010), pp. 314-18.
  2. ↑ Ibid., p. 317.
  3. ↑ Ferris, Bev. "Travelport gets human rights accolade", travelmole.com, September 19, 2007. Accessed September 27, 2007.

External links

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