Travelport history, profile and corporate video
Travelport travel companies offer services to businesses and consumers. Its brands include Galileo and Worldspan, global distribution systems. Its Airline IT Solutions business hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions for major airlines. Travelport also owns approximately 48% of Orbitz Worldwide, a leading global online travel company. The Blackstone Group bought the company from Cendant for $4.3 billion in a sale that closed in August 2006. In October 2007, Orbitz Worldwide became a separate, publicly traded company and no longer consolidates its sales with Travelport.”
“Travelport 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.
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.
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. 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.”
*Information from Forbes.com and Wikipedia.org
**Video published on YouTube by “Travelport“
