Sabre Tips Its Hand in Response to Antitrust Lawsuit Over Farelogix Merger
Photo Credit: A view of a Sabre office in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company faces a U.S. lawsuit over its proposed acquisition of tech vendor Farelogix. Auerbach Halevy Architects
Skift Take
The joke goes that the only people who make money in mergers are the lawyers and the bankers. If litigation continues over Sabre's acquisition of Farelogix, the lawyers may be laughing all the way to the bank.
Sabre said this week that the U.S Department of Justice suit to block the company's acquisition of tech vendor Farelogix was "fatally flawed" and denied all of the allegations.
The lawsuit, which the Justice Department launched on Aug. 20, alleged the $360 million merger would give Sabre too much control in airline distribution technology.
Sabre's response provided a few tidbits of information about Farelogix. It only earned $7 million in the U.S. last year, out of $42 million in revenue worldwide.
The global distribution system provider said that only two of Farelogix's 15 customers are U.S.-based. However, Farelogix's website lists Alaska, American, Delta, United, and Hawaiian as customers. The company's lawyers must have been referring to customers of Farelogix's direct connect product. American Airlines is the largest U.S. user of that.
Sabre said the company's small revenue numbers equates to "a close to zero" market share in the U.S. But, like the department, it didn'
