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Sabre Corporation

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Sabre Corporation, a travel technology company headquartered in Southlake, Texas, is the largest global distribution systems (GDS) provider for air bookings. The company's primary product, the Sabre Global Distribution System, and others like it, act as neutral intermediaries, connecting travel suppliers like airlines and hotels with travel sellers like agencies. They offer real-time availability and pricing, making them important for corporate travel management.

Sabre Corporation
Company typePublic
ISINUS78573M1045
IndustryTravel
Founded1960; 64 years ago (1960)
Headquarters
Southlake, Texas
,
United States
Key people
ProductsSabre Global Distribution System
RevenueIncrease US$2.908 billion (2023)
Increase US$0.047 billion (2023)
Negative increase US$(0.528) billion (2023)
Total assetsDecrease US$4.672 billion (2023)
Total equityNegative increase US$(1.376) billion (2023)
Number of employees
Decrease 6,232 (2023)
Websitesabre.com
Footnotes / references
Financials as of December 31, 2023.
References:[2]

Founded by American Airlines in 1960, Sabre was spun off and became an independent company in 2000. In 2007, Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners acquired Sabre Holdings, the company's former name. Sabre then went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2014.

Sabre's primary competitors are Amadeus IT Group, which operates the Amadeus CRS and Travelport, which operates the Galileo GDS.

History

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Early history

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In 1953, C.R. Smith, the president of American Airlines, met Blair Smith, an IBM salesman, on a flight and developed the Sabre (the Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment) concept.[3][4] The system was based on SAGE, the first major system to use interactive real-time computing, which IBM had developed for military use.[4]

Sabre Corporation was founded in 1960 by American Airlines.[5] Sabre Corporation installed the first Sabre reservation system in Briarcliff Manor, New York that year.[3] The system consisted of two IBM 7090 mainframe computers and processed 84,000 calls per day.[3][4]

In 1964, Sabre's nationwide network was completed and became the largest commercial real-time data-processing system in the world.[4] Sabre Corporation handled 7500 passenger reservations per hour in 1965.[3] The Sabre system upgraded to IBM System/360 and moved to a new center in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1972.[6]

In 1976, the Sabre system was installed into a travel agency for the first time.[5] This allowed travel agents to have instant access to flights.[5] By the end of the year, 130 locations installed the Sabre system.[4] Sabre introduced BargainFinder, the industry's first automated low-fare search capability, in 1984.[7] The following year, eAAsySabre was launched.[8] It gave consumers with personal computers access to the Sabre system to make airline, hotel and car rental reservations.[8]

In 1989 The New York Times reported Sabre having "about 38 percent of the reservations market."[9]

In 1996, the company launched Travelocity, an online travel agency.[10] Sabre formed a joint venture with Abacus International in 1998 to create SabreSonic, a customized version of Sabre's reservations system to Abacus subscribers in Asia.[11]

2000s

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AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, spun off its controlling stake in Sabre Corporation in 2000 to form an independent company.[12][13][14]

In 2001, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) purchased Sabre Holdings' airline hardware and communications business,[15] and Sabre began migrating its old mainframe for air travel shopping and pricing to HP NonStop and Linux servers.[16] In 2005, the company acquired lastminute.com, an online travel and leisure retailer.[17]

Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners acquired Sabre Corporation in March 2007.[18][19][20][21] In March 2010, the company acquired Calidris, a revenue integrity and business intelligence company.[22] Sabre Corporation acquired SoftHotel, a web-based property management provider, in June 2011.[23] The company launched Sabre Red App Centre in March 2012.[24] In April 2014, Sabre Corporation went public on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol SABR.[25][26] The IPO sold for $16 per share and valued Sabre at $3.93 billion.[27][28] The company acquired Genares, a hospitality technology company, that September.[29]

In December 2014, Bravofly Rumbo Group acquired Sabre European Online Travel Agency, lastminute.com.

In January 2015, Sabre sold its Travelocity brand to Expedia, Inc. for $280 million.[30][31][32] In July 2015, Sabre acquired Abacus International, a global distribution system based in the Asia-Pacific region. The deal included long-term distribution agreements between Sabre and the 11 Asian airlines that previously shared ownership of Abacus.[33]

In June 2016, Sabre announced Tom Klein would resign as CEO by the end of 2016.[34][35]

In October 2019 Sabre announced its purchase of Radixx for $110M. Radixx is a seller of passenger service software to small and budget airlines. Sabre expects Radixx to generate $20 million in 2019.[36]

In October 2021, Sabre announced the sale of the AirCentre portfolio to CAE Inc for $392.5M.[37]

In May 2022 Sabre announced its purchase of Nuvola, a provider of hotel and service optimization software.[38]

In August 2022, Sabre acquired Conferma Pay, a UK-based payments company.[39]

In March 2023, Sabre announced some executive changes as part of what it called its "long-term succession plan." The changes include Sean Menke transitioning to be solely Executive Chair effective April 27. At the same time, Kurt Ekert, who served as the president of Sabre, will take over as CEO.[40]

Operations

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The company is based in Southlake, Texas and has additional offices in London, Kraków, Bangalore, Montevideo and Singapore.[41] In December 2013, the company handled approximately 85,000 data transactions every second for customers according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.[42] At the time, the company did business with 70 airlines and 100,000 hotels.[42] Sabre has two major business verticals - Sabre Travel Solutions and Sabre Hospitality Solutions.

Acquisitions

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  • Preview Travel (2000)[17]
  • Dillion Communication Systems (2000)[43]
  • Gradient Solutions (2000)[44]
  • GetThere (2000)[45]
  • Sabre Pacific (2001)
  • Nexion Inc. (2003)[46]
  • David R. Bornemann Associates (2001)[47]
  • Site59 (2001)[48]
  • Resfeber Scandinavia (2002)[49]
  • Kiehl Hendrickson Group (2002)[50]
  • axsResource Airport Resource Management Solutions (2003)[51]
  • World Choice Travel (2003)[52]
  • RM Rocade (2004)[53]
  • Showtickets.com (2004)[54]
  • SynXis Corporation (2004)[55]
  • Southwest Travel Systems (2005)[56]
  • IgoUgo.com (2005)[57]
  • Lastminute.com (2005)[58]
  • E-site Marketing (2007)[59]
  • Flight Explorer (2008)[60]
  • EB2 (2008)[61]
  • Calidris (2010)[62]
  • Flightline Data Services (2010)[63]
  • f:wz (2010)[64]
  • SoftHotel (2011)[65]
  • Prism (2012)[66]
  • Genares (2014)[67]
  • Abacus International (2015)
  • Trust International (2015)[68]
  • Airpas Aviation (2016)[69]

References

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  1. ^ Driskill, Matt (15 January 2020). "Sabre Corporation names new chairman | Asian Aviation | Magazine". Asian Aviation. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Annual report Form 10-K 2023 Sabre Corporation". 15 February 2024. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d MCMILLAN, ROBERT (27 July 2012). "Forget the Booze. The Mad Men's Best Friend Was SABRE". Wired.
  4. ^ a b c d e Anthes, Gary (31 May 2004). "Sidebar: Sabre Timeline". Computerworld.
  5. ^ a b c SNYDER, BRETT (7 January 2011). "Sabre Makes the Wrong Choice By Removing American Airlines". CBS News.
  6. ^ McKenney, James L. (1 January 1995). Waves of Change: Business Evolution Through Information Technology.
  7. ^ "American Airlines Reveals Limits Of World-Class IT". 26 January 2012.
  8. ^ a b Vervest, Peter; Dunn, Al (2000). How to Win Customers in the Digital World: Total Action Or Fatal Inaction. ISBN 9783540665755.
  9. ^ "Sabre System Cuts Its Price". The New York Times. 20 April 1989.
  10. ^ Jainchill, Johanna (4 June 2012). "Travelocity fights to regain market share". Travel Weekly.
  11. ^ Wada, Isae (4 March 1998). "Sabre Finalized Abacus Pact". Travel Weekly.
  12. ^ Wichter, Zach (29 April 2019). "How One Computer System Tangled Up Several Airlines". The New York Times.
  13. ^ KOO, CAROLYN (14 December 1999). "AMR Climbs on Sabre Spinoff". TheStreet.com.
  14. ^ "American Airlines Assails Sabre in Data-Business Trial". 25 October 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  15. ^ Levere, Jane L. (16 March 2001). "Electronic Data Systems to Buy Sabre Airline Computer Unit". The New York Times.
  16. ^ Anthes, Gary (31 May 2004). "Sabre Flies to Open Systems".
  17. ^ a b "Sabre Holdings Completes Acquisition of lastminute.com". 20 July 2005.
  18. ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (11 December 2006). "Equity Firms in Talks to Buy Sabre Holdings". The New York Times.
  19. ^ "TPG and Silver Lake take Sabre private". Travel Weekly. 9 April 2007.
  20. ^ "Equity Firms in Talks to Buy Sabre Holdings". 11 December 2006.
  21. ^ "Silver Lake, Texas Pacific To Buy Sabre Holdings". 12 December 2006.
  22. ^ "Sabre Acquires Calidris". 31 March 2010.
  23. ^ "Sabre Holdings Acquires SoftHotel". 30 June 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  24. ^ Schaal, Dennis (6 March 2012). "Should Sabre be red-faced about Sabre Red App Centre launch?". Phocuswire.
  25. ^ Murray, Lance (4 April 2014). "Sabre Holdings sets IPO valuation at up to $4.1B". American City Business Journals.
  26. ^ "Travelocity owner Sabre's IPO prices at $16 per share -underwriter". Reuters. 16 April 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  27. ^ Samantha Nielson (25 September 2014). "Maverick Capital establishes position in Sabre Corporation". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  28. ^ "Travelocity owner Sabre takes flight on $627M IPO". 17 April 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  29. ^ "Sabre acquires global hospitality technology company". 21 September 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  30. ^ Expedia Inc acquires Travelocity in $280 million deal. Reuters, 26 January 2015
  31. ^ Robinson-Jacobs, Karen (23 January 2015). "Sabre sells Travelocity to Expedia for $280 million". Dallas Morning News.
  32. ^ "Expedia Buys Booking Site Travelocity for $280M in Cash". Inc. Associated Press. 23 January 2015.
  33. ^ Rudnansky, Ryan (1 July 2015). "Sabre Acquires Abacus International for $411M". TravelPulse.
  34. ^ "Sabre Corporation Announces CEO Transition" (Press release). Sabre Corporation. 20 June 2016.
  35. ^ Shine, Conor (20 June 2016). "Sabre Corporation's CEO Tom Klein to resign at year's end". Dallas Morning News.
  36. ^ O'Neil, Sean (16 October 2019). "Sabre's $110 Million Deal for Radixx Gives It New Upside in Passenger Services Tech". Skift. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  37. ^ "Sabre Announces CAE to acquire AirCentre portfolio" (Press release). Sabre Corporation. 28 October 2021.
  38. ^ "Sabre advances hotel retailing with acquisition of Nuvola". Cision PR Newswire. 9 May 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  39. ^ PYMNTS (8 August 2022). "Sabre Acquires Conferma Pay for B2B Payments". www.pymnts.com. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  40. ^ "Sabre Corp. Announces Plans for New CEO, Executive Chair". www.travelmarketreport.com. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  41. ^ "Sabre Corporation". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  42. ^ a b FUQUAY, JIM (5 December 2013). "Think of Sabre Holdings as a data company, CEO says". Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
  43. ^ "Sabre acquires stake in German CRS". 11 July 2000. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  44. ^ "E-Business: Sabre acquires Dublin-based Gradient Solutions". 17 August 2000. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  45. ^ "Sabre buys GetThere for $757 million, announces layoffs". 29 August 2000. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  46. ^ "Nexion adds 60-member host agency to network". Travel Weekly. 19 January 2005.
  47. ^ "Sabre Acquires Software Developer". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  48. ^ "Travelocity.com Buys Site59 for $43 Million". 26 March 2002. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  49. ^ "Resfeber switches to Sabre Travel Network, citing customer service and technology". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  50. ^ "Sabre buys Kiehl Hendrickson Group". American City Business Journals. 4 November 2002.
  51. ^ "Sabre Acquires EDS Axresource Product Line". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  52. ^ "Travelocity to Acquire World Choice Travel Assets". 22 October 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  53. ^ "Sabre Airline Solutions Expands International Presence". 16 August 2004. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  54. ^ "Travelocity Acquires Allstate Ticketing And Its Showtickets.com Website". 31 August 2004. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  55. ^ Rosenwald, Michael S. (10 December 2004). "SynXis to Be Bought for $40 Million". The Washington Post.
  56. ^ "Nexion adds 60-member host agency to network". 19 January 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  57. ^ "Acquisition Gives Sabre Access To Online Search Revenue". 6 April 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  58. ^ "Travelocity buys Lastminute.com for £577m". 12 May 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  59. ^ "(BW) Sabre Holdings Acquires E-site Marketing to Build on Comprehensive Hospitality Offerings". 5 June 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  60. ^ "Sabre acquires Flight Explorer". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  61. ^ "Sabre acquires EB2". 19 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  62. ^ "Calidris to become part of Sabre Airline Solutions". 31 March 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  63. ^ "Sabre Holdings buys Flightline Data Services". 8 July 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  64. ^ May, Kevin (29 September 2010). "Sabre buys flight planning technology provider f:wz". Phocuswire.
  65. ^ "Sabre Holdings acquires SoftHotel" (Press release). Sable Corporation. 29 June 2011.
  66. ^ "Sabre Airline Solutions Acquires Prism Group" (Press release). Sabre Corporation. 1 August 2012.
  67. ^ "Sabre Acquires Hotel-Tech Provider Genares as Competition Heats Up". 12 September 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  68. ^ May, Kevin (24 November 2015). "Sabre acquires Trust International for $154 million". Phocuswire.
  69. ^ "Sabre grows Airline Solutions portfolio with acquisition of Airpas Aviation". Sabre. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
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