Travelport

Travelport

Type	Private
Founded	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, chief administrative officer and general counsel, Travelport JoAnne Kruse, executive vice president of human resources, Travelport
Industry	Travel Conglomerate
Revenue	US$ 2.5 billion annually
Employees	Over 5,500
Parent	The Blackstone Group
Subsidiaries	Travelport GDS (includes Galileo and Worldspan) GTA Travelport IT Services & Software OctopusTravel.com THOR Travel Bound
Website	www.Travelport.com

Travelport is one of the world's largest travel conglomerates, a travel services information and global distribution services offering broad based business services to companies operating in the global travel industry. The company comprises the global distribution system (GDS) business that includes the Worldspan and Galileo brands; GTA, a leading global, multi-channel provider of hotel and ground services; IT Services and Software, which hosts mission critical applications and provides business and data analysis solutions for major airlines. With 2008 revenues of $2.5 billion, Travelport operates in approximately 160 countries and has over 5,500 employees.

Travelport also owns approximately 48% of Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW), a leading global online travel company.

Travelport is a private company owned by The Blackstone Group, One Equity Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures and Travelport management. It appears in the Fortune 500 and is number 133 in the Forbes list of private companies.

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, One Equity Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures.^[1][2] 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 sixth annual Corporate Equality Index awarded by the American Human Rights Campaign Foundation.^[3] Worldspan achieved the 100 percent rating on HRC's Corporate Equality Index in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Brands of Travelport

• Travelport GDS (includes Galileo and Worldspan
• GTA
• IT Services & Software
• OctopusTravel.com
• THOR
• Travel Bound
• needahotel.com

References

   * Travelport GDS (includes Galileo and Worldspan)
   * GTA
   * IT Services & Software
   * OctopusTravel.com
   * THOR
   * Travel Bound
   * needahotel.com

External links

• Travelport website
• Galileo
• Galileo in India