300 Galleria Pkwy viewed from SunTrust Park, May 2017

Travelport Worldwide Ltd provides distribution, technology, payment solutions for the

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

industry. It is the smallest, by revenue, of the top three

global distribution system A global distribution system (GDS) is a computerised network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel industry service providers, mainly airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel agencies. The GDS ma ...

s (GDS) after

Amadeus IT Group Amadeus IT Group, S.A. () is a major Spanish IT provider for the global travel and tourism industry. Company profile The company is structured around two areas: its global distribution system and its Information Technology business. Amadeus pro ...

and Sabre Corporation. The company also provides

IT services Information technology service management (ITSM) is the activities that are performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate and control information technology (IT) services offered to customers. Differing from more technology-or ...

to airlines, such as shopping, ticketing, and departure control.

History

The company was formed by

Cendant Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New Y ...

in 2001 following its acquisitions of

Galileo GDS Galileo is a computer reservations system (CRS) owned by Travelport. As of 2000, it had a 26.4% share of worldwide CRS airline bookings. In addition to airline reservations, the Galileo CRS is also used to book train travel, cruises, car rental, a ...

for $2.9 billion and

CheapTickets CheapTickets is an online travel services company focusing on the leisure market, offering airline tickets, hotel and vacation rentals, rental cars, customized vacation packages, and cruises. CheapTickets was a wholly owned subsidiary of Orbitz ...

for $425 million. In 2004, the company acquired Orbitz for $1.25 billion and Flairview Travel for $88 million. In 2005, the company acquired eBookers for $350 million and Gullivers Travel Associates for $1.1 billion. In August 2006, Cendant sold Orbitz and Galileo to

The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...

for $4.3 billion, forming Travelport. In August 2007, Travelport acquired Worldspan for $1.4 billion. In July 2007, the company completed the partial

corporate spin-off A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. Charact ...

of Orbitz via an initial public offering. In May 2010, the company acquired Sprice.com. In 2011, the company sold Gullivers Travel Associates to Kuoni Travel for $720 million. On September 25, 2014, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...

. In 2015, Travelport acquired Mobile Travel Technologies for ‎€55 million.

Awards

In 2017, Travelport was the first GDS to be awarded the

International Air Transport Association The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

NDC (New Distribution Capability) Level 3 certification as an aggregator of travel content. In 2018, it became the first GDS operator to manage the live booking of flights using the NDC standard.

Acquisition

On May 30, 2019, the company was acquired by affiliates of Siris Capital Group and Evergreen Coast Capital, an affiliate of Elliott Management Corporation, for $4.4 billion.

References

{{Major travel technology companies 2006 mergers and acquisitions 2007 initial public offerings 2014 initial public offerings 2019 mergers and acquisitions The Blackstone Group companies Companies based in Slough Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Computer reservation systems Hospitality companies established in 2001 Privately held companies of England Travel technology