Articles tagged “amadeus”

Amadeus has long talked about diversifying its business, branching out from distribution into software services for hotels, airlines, and airports. But 2019 looks like it will finally be the year that the new businesses gain nearly equal importance to the old ones.

Few companies other than activist investor Elliott Management expressed a serious interest in acquiring Travelport. Elliott twice lost potential private equity partners after they reviewed Travelport's books. The deal price is underwhelming, and that's a signal that some things haven't been going the company's way.

The hotel tech group that Jonas Hospitality has put together through acquisitions of Leonardo, MSI, Springer-Miller, and BookAssist is admittedly small. But its creation says a lot about the pressures to consolidate in hotel tech. Experts debate the pros and cons of such roll-ups.

These were the 10 biggest deals in travel in 2018. Were they the smartest decisions? We'll know in a few years. Hospitality-related acquisitions dominated our list; the online travel agencies made some big investments, but were absent as big buyers.

This deal is noteworthy because it represents a recent industry shift in the gravity of airline sales efforts. Work that used to happen on computers that interact mainly with travel agencies is now shifting toward computers that mainly power an airline's brand.com site and other direct sales channels.

Travelport has only been on the public market for four years, but hedge fund Elliott Management believes it can engineer a leveraged buyout that will unlock more value from the company. A spin-off of payments unit eNett is a likely early goal.

In settling this lawsuit, Amadeus doesn't admit to any wrongdoing or violations of antitrust law. Along with Travelport, Amadeus agreed to have its team engage in antitrust compliance training.

It's anyone's guess whether travel distribution giants Amadeus and Sabre might have run afoul of the European Union's rules. But a look at the history of those companies' airline contracts provides clues as to what might be top of mind with investigators.

Over the years, the big global distribution systems have been a major barrier to innovation by airlines and travel startups, in particular. The European Commission now intends to take a serious look at this dynamic.

Amadeus is spending more heavily on R&D than its competitors, which it is betting augurs well for its future.