Sabre Corporation

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Sabre Corporation, a travel technology company headquartered in Southlake, Texas, is the largest global distribution systems (GDS) provider for air bookings. The company's primary product, the Sabre Global Distribution System, and others like it, act as neutral intermediaries, connecting travel suppliers like airlines and hotels with travel sellers like agencies. They offer real-time availability and pricing, making them important for corporate travel management.

Founded by American Airlines in 1960, Sabre was spun off and became an independent company in 2000. In 2007, Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners acquired Sabre Holdings, the company's former name. Sabre then went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2014.

Sabre's primary competitors are Amadeus IT Group, which operates the Amadeus CRS and Travelport, which operates the Galileo GDS.

History

Early history

In 1953, C. R. Smith, the president of American Airlines, met Blair Smith, an IBM salesman, on a flight and developed the Sabre (the Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment) concept.<ref name="wired">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="computerworld">Template:Cite news</ref> The system was based on SAGE, the first major system to use interactive real-time computing, which IBM had developed for military use.<ref name=computerworld/> Sabre Corporation was officially founded in 1960 by American Airlines.<ref name=wrong>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sabre Corporation installed the first Sabre reservation system in Briarcliff Manor, New York that year.<ref name=wired/> The system consisted of two IBM 7090 mainframe computers and processed 84,000 calls per day.<ref name=wired/><ref name=computerworld/>

In 1964, Sabre's nationwide network was completed and became the largest commercial real-time data-processing system in the world.<ref name=computerworld/> Sabre Corporation handled 7500 passenger reservations per hour in 1965.<ref name=wired/> The Sabre system upgraded to IBM System/360 and moved to a new center in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1972.<ref name="wavesofchange">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1976, the Sabre system was installed into a travel agency for the first time.<ref name=wrong/> This allowed travel agents to have instant access to flights.<ref name=wrong/> By the end of the year, 130 locations installed the Sabre system.<ref name=computerworld/> Sabre introduced BargainFinder, the industry's first automated low-fare search capability, in 1984.<ref name="informationweek">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The following year, eAAsySabre was launched.<ref name="digitalworld">Template:Cite book</ref> eAAsySabre gave consumers with personal computers access to the Sabre system to make airline, hotel and car rental reservations.<ref name=digitalworld/>

By 1989, Sabre was reported as having "about 38 percent of the reservations market."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1996, the company launched Travelocity, an online travel agency.<ref name="travelweekly2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sabre formed a joint venture with Abacus International in 1998 to create SabreSonic, a customized version of Sabre's reservations system to Abacus subscribers in Asia.<ref name="travelweekly3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2000 to present

In 2000, Sabre Corporation was spun off of AMR Corporation to form an independent company.<ref name="SabrCorp.NYT19">Template:Cite news</ref> The following year, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) purchased Sabre Holdings' airline hardware and communications business,<ref name="eds">Template:Cite news</ref> and Sabre began migrating its old mainframe for air travel shopping and pricing to HP NonStop and Linux servers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2005, the company acquired lastminute.com, an online travel and leisure retailer.<ref name="hotelnewsresource">Template:Cite news</ref>

Sabre Corporation was acquired by Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners in March 2007.<ref name="Sabr2006.NYT">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="travelweekly">Template:Cite news</ref> In March 2010, the company acquired Calidris, a revenue integrity and business intelligence company.<ref name="etbnews">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sabre Corporation acquired SoftHotel, a web-based property management provider, in June 2011.<ref name="hospitalitytechnology">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The company launched Sabre Red App Centre in March 2012.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In April 2014, Sabre Corporation went public on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol SABR.<ref name="dallasbusinessjournal">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="reuters">Template:Cite news</ref> The IPO sold for $16 per share and valued Sabre at $3.93 billion.<ref name="marketrealist">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="venturebeat">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The company acquired Genares, a hospitality technology company, that September.<ref name="eturbonews">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In December 2014, Bravofly Rumbo Group acquired Sabre European Online Travel Agency, lastminute.com. In January 2015, Sabre sold its Travelocity brand to Expedia, Inc. for $280 million.<ref>Expedia Inc acquires Travelocity in $280 million deal. Reuters, 26 January 2015</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In July 2015, Sabre acquired Abacus International, a global distribution system based in the Asia-Pacific region. The deal included long-term distribution agreements between Sabre and the 11 Asian airlines that previously shared ownership of Abacus.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In June 2016, Sabre announced Tom Klein would resign as CEO by the end of 2016.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2019 Sabre announced its purchase of Radixx for $110M. Radixx is a seller of passenger service software to small and budget airlines. Sabre expects Radixx to generate $20 million in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 2021, Sabre announced the sale of the AirCentre portfolio to CAE Inc for $392.5M.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

In May 2022 Sabre announced its purchase of Nuvola, a provider of hotel and service optimization software.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In August 2022, it acquired Conferma Pay, a UK-based payments company.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In March 2023, Sabre announced some executive changes as part of what it called its "long-term succession plan." The changes included Sean Menke transitioning to be sole Executive Chair effective April 27. At the same time, Kurt Ekert, who served as the president of Sabre, took over as CEO.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2025, Sabre entered into a multi-year $1.56 billion partnership with Coforge, an Indian IT company.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It also sold its Hospitality Solutions division to TPG Inc.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Operations

The company is based in Southlake, Texas and has additional offices in London, Kraków, Bangalore, Montevideo and Singapore.<ref name="sec">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In December 2013, the company handled approximately 85,000 data transactions every second for customers according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.<ref name="startelegram">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the time, the company did business with 70 airlines and 100,000 hotels.<ref name=startelegram/> Sabre operates Sabre Travel Solutions.<ref name=SabrCorp.NYT19/>

Acquisitions

• Preview Travel (2000)<ref name=hotelnewsresource/>
• Dillion Communication Systems (2000)<ref name="dillioncommunicationsystems">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Gradient Solutions (2000)<ref name="gradient">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• GetThere (2000)<ref name="getthere">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Sabre Pacific (2001)
• Nexion Inc. (2003)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• David R. Bornemann Associates (2001)<ref name="davidr">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Site59 (2001)<ref name="site59">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Resfeber Scandinavia (2002)<ref name="resfeber">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Kiehl Hendrickson Group (2002)<ref name="kiehl">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• axsResource Airport Resource Management Solutions (2003)<ref name="axresource">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• World Choice Travel (2003)<ref name="worldchoice">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• RM Rocade (2004)<ref name="rmrocade">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Showtickets.com (2004)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• SynXis Corporation (2004)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Southwest Travel Systems (2005)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• IgoUgo.com (2005)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Lastminute.com (2005)<ref name="lastminute">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• E-site Marketing (2007)<ref name="esite">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Flight Explorer (2008)<ref name="flightexplorer">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• EB2 (2008)<ref name="eb2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Calidris (2010)<ref name="calidris">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Flightline Data Services (2010)<ref name="flightline">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• f:wz (2010)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• SoftHotel (2011)<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
• Prism (2012)<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
• Genares (2014)<ref name="genares">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Abacus International (2015)
• Trust International (2015)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Airpas Aviation (2016)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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