Skift Take

By bringing in former Continental chairman and CEO Larry Kellner as Sabre chairman, and installing Tom Klein as the new CEO, Sabre is signaling that it is readying a strategic move, possibly an IPO, in the near future. The Travelocity deal with Expedia, Travelocity divestments of zuji and Travelocity Business, and these layoffs may all be pieces of the puzzle.

ExclusiveSabre has recently laid off more than 200 employees in addition to the roughly 90 workers who have been fired at its Travelocity unit.

Many of Sabre’s layoffs likely occurred outside of Texas, where it has its global headquarters.

That’s because Sabre would been required to notify the Texas Workforce Commission of mass layoffs within the state, and a commission spokesperson sent Skift copies of such notifications, but they only pertained to Travelocity.

However, a Sabre spokesperson confirmed that the company has laid off more than 200 employees in addition to the downsizing at Travelocity, which is related to its agreement to outsource most of its North America operations to Expedia.

The layoffs at Sabre, with divisions that pertain to travel agency distribution, airline IT and hotel IT, in addition to Travelocity Global, hit multiple departments, the spokesperson says.

Sabre didn’t get very specific about its reasoning behind the latest workforce reductions.

“We continuously review our business, investments and our organisation to ensure we stay ahead of technology trends and changing customer needs,” Sabre stated. “Any changes we make to our organisation are always carefully considered, and we never lose sight of our goal to deliver more relevant products and services to our customers.”

Sabre, which was acquired by private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and TPG in 2007 for $5 billion, has been maneuvering in anticipation of an IPO or other strategic move in 2014.

Sabre recently shuffled CEOs and brought in former Continental Airlines CEO Larry Kellner as chairman.

Sabre, including Travelocity and LastMinute.com, has roughly 10,000 employees in some 60 countries, according to its website.

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Tags: ipo, private equity, sabre, travelocity

Photo credit: Tom Klein, who was promoted to the Sabre CEO post in August, appeared at a World Travel & Tourism summit in April. World Travel & Tourism Council / Flickr

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