Acquisition Will Speed the Delivery of Innovative Next-Generation Airline Technology Solutions
Combined Company’s Technology Will Help Facilitate Airlines’ Growth and Profitability While Enabling Better Travel Experiences for Consumers
SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS — AUG 20, 2019 — Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), a leading technology provider to the travel industry, announced today that it will challenge the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking to block the company’s planned acquisition of Farelogix, Inc. Farelogix, a recognized innovator in the highly competitive airline technology space whose New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology is used by a number of airlines around the world, will bring capabilities to Sabre that will accelerate the delivery of the industry’s first end-to-end NDC-enabled solution for the retailing, distribution and fulfillment of travel. Sabre is confident of the pro-competitive nature of this transaction, that it will succeed in court, and that the transaction will ultimately be completed.
“Over the past two years, Sabre has embarked upon a strategy with an entirely new executive management team focused on evolving the underlying technology of the travel ecosystem we support. To meet travelers’ changing expectations while increasing profitability, airlines need a technology partner that is ready to deliver tomorrow’s technological solutions today,” said Sean Menke, President and CEO of Sabre. “Together, Sabre and Farelogix will drive faster innovation in the dynamic, highly competitive airline technology space, helping airlines accelerate their growth and profitability while better serving travelers. We look forward to closing this transaction and to delivering the benefits it will enable for our airline and agency customers, corporations, and travelers.”
The DOJ’s claims lack a basis in reality and reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the industry. The DOJ claims that Sabre and Farelogix compete head to head for airline bookings in the United States, but that claim misstates Farelogix’s role in the industry. Sabre and Farelogix offer complementary services, and this transaction is the continuation of an already successful collaboration between the two companies. The airline technology sector is highly competitive, with many companies – even airlines themselves – competing to deliver next-gen retailing solutions. Sabre looks forward to showing the court how dynamic this industry is and having airlines and travel agencies explain how the industry actually works.
Sabre has committed to its airline customers and to the DOJ that for a period of time after the transaction, it will continue to offer Farelogix products at the same prices available today or lower, and to support and invest in those products at the same level or higher. In addition, Sabre has committed to offer to extend any existing Sabre GDS or Farelogix contract on the same terms, including price, for a period of at least three years.
“These commitments underscore that Sabre’s goal in acquiring Farelogix is to strengthen our ability to provide our airline and agency customers with the next-generation retailing, distribution, and fulfillment products and services they need,” said Menke.
Sabre and Farelogix have extended the termination date of their acquisition agreement to April 30, 2020, allowing time to resolve the challenge by the DOJ. Sabre will file its formal written response to the DOJ’s complaint in court at the appropriate time.
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About Sabre
Sabre Corporation is the leading technology provider to the global travel industry. Sabre’s software, data, mobile and distribution solutions are used by hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotel properties to manage critical operations, including passenger and guest reservations, revenue management, flight, network and crew management. Sabre also operates a leading global travel marketplace, which processes more than $120 billion of estimated travel spend annually by connecting travel buyers and suppliers. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world.
Forward-looking statements
Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements about trends, future events, uncertainties and our plans and expectations of what may happen in the future. Any statements that are not historical or current facts are forward-looking statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “will,” “confident,” “enable,” “plan,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “may,” “should,” “would,” “intend,” “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Sabre’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the outcome and effects of any litigation or regulatory reviews regarding the acquisition described in this release, and, if successfully completed, closing, integration and effects of the acquisition described in this release, the financial performance of the company expected to be acquired, dependency on transaction volumes in the global travel industry, particularly air travel transaction volumes, including from airlines’ insolvency, suspension of service or aircraft groundings, travel suppliers’ usage of alternative distribution models, exposure to pricing pressure in the Travel Network business, changes affecting travel supplier customers, maintenance of the integrity of our systems and infrastructure and the effect of any security breaches, failure to adapt to technological advancements, competition in the travel distribution market and solutions markets, implementation of software solutions, reliance on third parties to provide information technology services, the implementation and effects of new or renewed agreements, dependence on establishing, maintaining and renewing contracts with customers and other counterparties and collecting amounts due to us under these agreements, dependence on relationships with travel buyers, our collection, processing, storage, use and transmission of personal data and risks associated with PCI compliance, our ability to recruit, train and retain employees, including our key executive officers and technical employees, the effects of litigation and regulatory investigations, adverse global and regional economic and political conditions, including, but not limited to, economic conditions in countries or regions with traditionally high levels of exports to China or that have commodities-based economies and the effect of “Brexit” and uncertainty due to related negotiations, risks arising from global operations, reliance on the value of our brands, failure to comply with regulations, use of third-party distributor partners, the financial and business effects of acquisitions, the effects of the implementation of new accounting standards, and tax-related matters, including the effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. More information about potential risks and uncertainties that could affect our business and results of operations is included in the “Risk Factors” section in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 1, 2019, in the “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements” sections in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15, 2019 and in our other filings with the SEC. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future events, outlook, guidance, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Unless required by law, Sabre undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events after the date they are made.
Media contact: sabrenews@sabre.com
Investor contact: sabre.investorrelations@sabre.com