Articles tagged “farelogix”

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 had tried the unorthodox legal tactic of pursuing its $360 million acquisition of Farelogix, an airline tech vendor, without waiting for approval from U.S. antitrust watchdogs. But it apparently didn't count on federal attorneys claiming they have text messages between Sabre executives acknowledging the anti-competitive nature of the deal.

The travel technology giant said Wednesday it would go ahead with its planned $360 million acquisition on August 21. If the U.S. federal attorneys aren't happy about it, they can sue, Sabre said. No travel tech company has used, and threatened in public to use, its lawyers as much as Sabre in the past decade.

Sabre allegedly tried to kill smaller rival Farelogix years ago. But now there's peace in the valley. Farelogix's merchandising and direct connection technology will plug a gap in Sabre's offering and could accelerate the travel tech giant's growth.

Lufthansa Group and IAG (the parent of British Airways) are striving to shake up airline distribution. One of the tech providers that they've hired to do this is Farelogix, whose boss, Jim Davidson, has a provocative vision of the future that's running into commercial resistance.

Lufthansa is investing in direct booking connectivity with corporations (and the commercial initiatives to make them happen). The technological and commercial Tarmac being laid may pave the way for others, like IAG's British Airways.

As airlines get better at passenger profiling they will drive greater loyalty among frequent flyers, but they should make sure the the gap between high-flyer and leisure traveler isn't so wide that potential customers get turned off.