Travelport

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Travelport
Type Private
Founded Flag of the United States 2001
Headquarters Parsippany, New Jersey
Key people Jeff Clarke, CEO and president. Travelport
Ken Esterow, president and CEO, GTA
Gordon Wilson, president and CEO, Travelport GDS
Mike Rescoe, executive vice president and CFO, Travelport
Eric Bock, executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance and ethics officer, Travelport
Pat Bourke, executive vice president of operations and chief re-engineering officer, Travelport
JoAnne Kruse, executive vice president of human resources, Travelport
Industry Travel Conglomerate
Revenue Approx. US$2.8 billion annually
Employees Approx. 6,000
Subsidiaries Galileo
Worldspan
GTA (Gullivers Travel Associates)
Shepherd Business Intelligence
aiRES
Galileo Rail
OctopusTravel.com
THOR
Travel Bound
Trust International
Website www.Travelport.com

Travelport is a travel services information provider and has a global computer reservations system. Travelport operates three primary businesses: Travelport GDS, a global distribution system business, comprised of Worldspan and Galileo; an IT Services and Software business; and Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA), a wholesaler of global travel content. It owns approximately 48 percent of Orbitz Worldwide.

The company has an ongoing annual revenue of approximately US$2.8 billion and operates in 145 countries with a workforce of 7,500 globally.[1] It appears in the Fortune 500 and is number 133 in the Forbes list of private companies. [2]

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[edit] History

Travelport's 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. The sale of Travelport followed the spin-offs of Cendant's real estate and hospitality businesses, Realogy Corporation and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, respectively, on July 31, 2006. Travelport is now owned by The Blackstone Group, Technology Crossover Ventures and One Equity Partners.[3][4] In April 2006, Cendant hired Jeff Clarke as president and CEO of Travel Distribution Services to lead the sale of the division. He is currently CEO, president and a member of the board of directors of Travelport and chairman of the board of Orbitz Worldwide, Inc.

In March 2007, Travelport's parent companies, Travelport Holdings Limited, paid a $1.1 billion dividend to its shareholders funded by a payment-in-kind (PIK) recapitalization of the company. The company later announced in May 2007 that it had 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 acquired Worldspan for $1.4 billion on August 21, 2007, integrating it with Galileo.

On September 19, 2007, Travelport became the first travel company to receive a 100 percent rating on the annual Corporate Equality Index awarded by the American Human Rights Campaign Foundation.[5]


[edit] Brands of Travelport

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Travelport appoints management team of its GDS business", CNN, September 10, 2007. Accessed September 27, 2007.
  2. ^ "Travelport Limited", Hoovers.com, September 10, 2007. Accessed September 27, 2007.
  3. ^ Sachdev, Ameet. " Orbitz travels to 4th owner: Blackstone Group to buy from Cendant.", Chicago Tribune, July 1, 2006. Accessed September 15, 2007.
  4. ^ Fineman, Josh. "Cendant to sell Orbitz to Blackstone for $4.3 Bln", Bloomberg.com, June 30, 2006. Accessed September 15, 2007.
  5. ^ Ferris, Bev. "Travelport gets human rights accolade", travelmole.com, September 19, 2007. Accessed September 27, 2007.

[edit] External links