Sabre Corporation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Sabre Corporation
TypePublic
IndustryTravel technology
Travel services
Founded1960; 62 years ago (1960)
Headquarters
Southlake, Texas
,
United States
Key people
Karl Peterson[1]
(executive chairman)
Sean Menke
(CEO)
Kurt Ekert
(President)
Products
  • Sabre GDS
  • TripCase
  • GetThere
  • Sabre Travel Solutions
  • Sabre Hospitality Solutions
RevenueIncrease US$ 3.97 billion (2019)[2]
Decrease US$ 363.42 million (2019)
Decrease US$ 162.55 million (2019)
Total assetsDecrease US$ 5.69 billion (2019)
Total equityDecrease US$ 947.67 million (2019)
Number of employees
9,950 (2020)
Websitewww.sabre.com

Sabre Corporation is a travel technology company based in Southlake, Texas.[3][4][5] It is the largest global distribution systems provider for air bookings in North America.[6] American Airlines founded the company in 1960, and it was spun off in 2000.[7][8]

In 2007, Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners acquired what was then Sabre Holdings.[9][10] Sabre began publicly trading on the NASDAQ in 2014.[5]

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

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.[11][12] The system was based on SAGE, the first major system to use interactive real-time computing, which IBM had developed for military use.[12]

Sabre Corporation was founded in 1960 by American Airlines.[13] Sabre Corporation installed the first Sabre reservation system in Briarcliff Manor, New York that year.[11] The system consisted of two IBM 7090 mainframe computers and processed 84,000 calls per day.[11][12]

In 1964, Sabre's nationwide network was completed and became the largest commercial real-time data-processing system in the world.[12] Sabre Corporation handled 7500 passenger reservations per hour in 1965.[11] The Sabre system upgraded to IBM System/360 and moved to a new center in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1972.[14]

In 1976, the Sabre system was installed into a travel agency for the first time.[13] This allowed travel agents to have instant access to flights.[13] By the end of the year, 130 locations installed the Sabre system.[12] Sabre introduced BargainFinder, the industry's first automated low-fare search capability, in 1984.[15] The following year, easySabre was launched.[16] It gave consumers with personal computers access to the Sabre system to make airline, hotel and car rental reservations.[16]

In 1989 The New York Times reported Sabre having "about 38 percent of the reservations market."[17]

In 1996, the company launched Travelocity, an online travel agency.[18] Sabre formed a joint venture with Abacus International in 1998 to create the SabreSonic passenger solution, a customized version of Sabre's reservations system to Abacus subscribers in Asia.[19]

2000s[edit]

AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, spun off its controlling stake in Sabre Corporation in 2000[3] to form an independent company.[20]

In 2001, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) purchased Sabre Holdings' airline hardware and communications business,[7] and Sabre began migrating its old mainframe for air travel shopping and pricing to HP NonStop and Linux servers.[21] In 2005, the company acquired lastminute.com, an online travel and leisure retailer.[22]

Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners acquired Sabre Corporation in March 2007.[10][23][24] In March 2010, the company acquired Calidris, a revenue integrity and business intelligence solutions company.[25] Sabre Corporation acquired SoftHotel, a web-based property management solutions provider, in June 2011.[26] The company launched Sabre Red App Centre in March 2012.[27] In April 2014, Sabre Corporation went public on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol SABR.[5][6] The IPO sold for $16 per share and valued Sabre at $3.93 billion.[28][29] The company acquired Genares, a hospitality technology company, that September.[30]

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.[31][32][33] 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.[34]

In June 2016, Sabre announced Tom Klein would resign as CEO by the end of 2016.[35][36]

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

Operations[edit]

The company is based in Southlake, Texas and has additional offices in London, Kraków, Bangalore, Montevideo and Singapore.[38] In December 2013, the company handled approximately 85,000 data transactions every second for customers according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.[39] At the time, the company did business with 70 airlines and 100,000 hotels.[39] Sabre has two major business verticals - Sabre Travel Solutions and Sabre Hospitality Solutions.

Businesses[edit]

  • GetThere
  • Sabre Travel Solutions
  • Sabre Hospitality Solutions
  • TripCase

Acquisitions[edit]

  • Preview Travel (2000)[22]
  • Dillion Communication Systems (2000)[40]
  • Gradient Solutions (2000)[41]
  • GetThere (2000)[42]
  • Sabre Pacific (2001)
  • Nexion Inc. (2003)[43]
  • David R. Bornemann Associates (2001)[44]
  • Site59 (2001)[45]
  • Resfeber Scandinavia (2002)[46]
  • Kiehl Hendrickson Group (2002)[47]
  • axsResource Airport Resource Management Solutions (2003)[48]
  • World Choice Travel (2003)[49]
  • RM Rocade (2004)[50]
  • Showtickets.com (2004)[51]
  • SynXis Corporation (2004)[52]
  • Southwest Travel Systems (2005)[53]
  • IgoUgo.com (2005)[54]
  • Lastminute.com (2005)[55]
  • E-site Marketing (2007)[56]
  • Flight Explorer (2008)[57]
  • EB2 (2008) [58]
  • Calidris (2010) [59]
  • Flightline Data Services (2010) [60]
  • f:wz (2010)[61]
  • SoftHotel (2011)[62]
  • Prism (2012)[63]
  • Genares (2014) [64]
  • Abacus International (2015)
  • Trust International (2015)[65]
  • Airpas Aviation (2016)[66]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Driskill, Matt (15 January 2020). "Sabre Corporation names new chairman | Asian Aviation | Magazine". Asian Aviation. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  2. ^ "2019 Q4 Earning Release (PDF)". 26 February 2020.
  3. ^ a b Wichter, Zach (29 April 2019). "How One Computer System Tangled Up Several Airlines". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Ciaccia, Chris (17 April 2014). "Travelocity Owner Sabre Holdings Returns to Wall Street After IPO".
  5. ^ a b c Murray, Lance (4 April 2014). "Sabre Holdings sets IPO valuation at up to $4.1B". American City Business Journals.
  6. ^ a b "Travelocity owner Sabre's IPO prices at $16 per share -underwriter". Reuters. 16 April 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  7. ^ a b Levere, Jane L. (16 March 2001). "Electronic Data Systems to Buy Sabre Airline Computer Unit". The New York Times.
  8. ^ "American Airlines Assails Sabre in Data-Business Trial". 25 October 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  9. ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (11 December 2006). "Equity Firms in Talks to Buy Sabre Holdings". The New York Times.
  10. ^ a b "TPG and Silver Lake take Sabre private". Travel Weekly. 9 April 2007.
  11. ^ a b c d MCMILLAN, ROBERT (27 July 2012). "Forget the Booze. The Mad Men's Best Friend Was SABRE". Wired.
  12. ^ a b c d e Anthes, Gary (31 May 2004). "Sidebar: Sabre Timeline". Computerworld.
  13. ^ a b c SNYDER, BRETT (7 January 2011). "Sabre Makes the Wrong Choice By Removing American Airlines". CBS News.
  14. ^ McKenney, James L. (1 January 1995). Waves of Change: Business Evolution Through Information Technology.
  15. ^ "American Airlines Reveals Limits Of World-Class IT". 26 January 2012.
  16. ^ a b Vervest, Peter; Dunn, Al (2000). How to Win Customers in the Digital World: Total Action Or Fatal Inaction. ISBN 9783540665755.
  17. ^ "Sabre System Cuts Its Price". The New York Times. 20 April 1989.
  18. ^ Jainchill, Johanna (4 June 2012). "Travelocity fights to regain market share". Travel Weekly.
  19. ^ Wada, Isae (4 March 1998). "Sabre Finalized Abacus Pact". Travel Weekly.
  20. ^ KOO, CAROLYN (14 December 1999). "AMR Climbs on Sabre Spinoff". TheStreet.com.
  21. ^ Anthes, Gary (31 May 2004). "Sabre Flies to Open Systems".
  22. ^ a b "Sabre Holdings Completes Acquisition of lastminute.com". 20 July 2005.
  23. ^ "Equity Firms in Talks to Buy Sabre Holdings". 11 December 2006.
  24. ^ "Silver Lake, Texas Pacific To Buy Sabre Holdings". 12 December 2006.
  25. ^ "Sabre Acquires Calidris". 31 March 2010.
  26. ^ "Sabre Holdings Acquires SoftHotel". 30 June 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  27. ^ Schaal, Dennis (6 March 2012). "Should Sabre be red-faced about Sabre Red App Centre launch?". Phocuswire.
  28. ^ Samantha Nielson (25 September 2014). "Maverick Capital establishes position in Sabre Corporation". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  29. ^ "Travelocity owner Sabre takes flight on $627M IPO". 17 April 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  30. ^ "Sabre acquires global hospitality technology company". 21 September 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  31. ^ Expedia Inc acquires Travelocity in $280 million deal. Reuters, 26 January 2015
  32. ^ Robinson-Jacobs, Karen (23 January 2015). "Sabre sells Travelocity to Expedia for $280 million". Dallas Morning News.
  33. ^ "Expedia Buys Booking Site Travelocity for $280M in Cash". Inc. Associated Press. 23 January 2015.
  34. ^ Rudnansky, Ryan (1 July 2015). "Sabre Acquires Abacus International for $411M". TravelPulse.
  35. ^ "Sabre Corporation Announces CEO Transition" (Press release). Sabre Corporation. 20 June 2016.
  36. ^ Shine, Conor (20 June 2016). "Sabre Corporation's CEO Tom Klein to resign at year's end". Dallas Morning News.
  37. ^ "Sabre Announces CAE to acquire AirCentre portfolio" (Press release). Sabre Corporation. 28 October 2021.
  38. ^ "Sabre Corporation". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  39. ^ a b FUQUAY, JIM (5 December 2013). "Think of Sabre Holdings as a data company, CEO says". Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
  40. ^ "Sabre acquires stake in German CRS". 11 July 2000. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  41. ^ "E-Business: Sabre acquires Dublin-based Gradient Solutions". 17 August 2000. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  42. ^ "Sabre buys GetThere for $757 million, announces layoffs". 29 August 2000. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  43. ^ "Nexion adds 60-member host agency to network". Travel Weekly. 19 January 2005.
  44. ^ "Sabre Acquires Software Developer". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  45. ^ "Travelocity.com Buys Site59 for $43 Million". 26 March 2002. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  46. ^ "Resfeber switches to Sabre Travel Network, citing customer service and technology". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  47. ^ "Sabre buys Kiehl Hendrickson Group". American City Business Journals. 4 November 2002.
  48. ^ "Sabre Acquires EDS Axresource Product Line". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  49. ^ "Travelocity to Acquire World Choice Travel Assets". 22 October 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  50. ^ "Sabre Airline Solutions Expands International Presence". 16 August 2004. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  51. ^ "Travelocity Acquires Allstate Ticketing And Its Showtickets.com Website". 31 August 2004. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  52. ^ Rosenwald, Michael S. (10 December 2004). "SynXis to Be Bought for $40 Million". The Washington Post.
  53. ^ "Nexion adds 60-member host agency to network". 19 January 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  54. ^ "Acquisition Gives Sabre Access To Online Search Revenue". 6 April 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  55. ^ "Travelocity buys Lastminute.com for £577m". 12 May 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  56. ^ "(BW) Sabre Holdings Acquires E-site Marketing to Build on Comprehensive Hospitality Offerings". 5 June 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  57. ^ "Sabre acquires Flight Explorer". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  58. ^ "Sabre acquires EB2". 19 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  59. ^ "Calidris to become part of Sabre Airline Solutions". 31 March 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  60. ^ "Sabre Holdings buys Flightline Data Services". 8 July 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  61. ^ May, Kevin (29 September 2010). "Sabre buys flight planning technology provider f:wz". Phocuswire.
  62. ^ "Sabre Holdings acquires SoftHotel" (Press release). Sable Corporation. 29 June 2011.
  63. ^ "Sabre Airline Solutions Acquires Prism Group" (Press release). Sabre Corporation. 1 August 2012.
  64. ^ "Sabre Acquires Hotel-Tech Provider Genares as Competition Heats Up". 12 September 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  65. ^ May, Kevin (24 November 2015). "Sabre acquires Trust International for $154 million". Phocuswire.
  66. ^ "Sabre grows Airline Solutions portfolio with acquisition of Airpas Aviation". Sabre. Retrieved 28 January 2018.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sabre_Corporation&oldid=1070900726"