SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Aug. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sabre Corporation
(NASDAQ: SABR), a leading technology provider to the travel
industry, announced today that it will challenge the lawsuit filed
by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking to block the
company's planned acquisition of Farelogix, Inc. Farelogix, a
recognized innovator in the highly competitive airline technology
space whose New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology is used by
a number of airlines around the world, will bring capabilities to
Sabre that will accelerate the delivery of the industry's first
end-to-end NDC-enabled solution for the retailing, distribution and
fulfillment of travel. Sabre is confident of the pro-competitive
nature of this transaction, that it will succeed in court, and that
the transaction will ultimately be completed.
"Over the past two years, Sabre has embarked upon a strategy
with an entirely new executive management team focused on evolving
the underlying technology of the travel ecosystem we support. To
meet travelers' changing expectations while increasing
profitability, airlines need a technology partner that is ready to
deliver tomorrow's technological solutions today," said
Sean Menke, President and CEO of
Sabre. "Together, Sabre and Farelogix will drive faster innovation
in the dynamic, highly competitive airline technology space,
helping airlines accelerate their growth and profitability while
better serving travelers. We look forward to closing this
transaction and to delivering the benefits it will enable for our
airline and agency customers, corporations, and travelers."
The DOJ's claims lack a basis in reality and reflect a
fundamental misunderstanding of the industry. The DOJ claims that
Sabre and Farelogix compete head to head for airline bookings in
the United States, but that claim
misstates Farelogix's role in the industry. Sabre and
Farelogix offer complementary services, and this transaction is the
continuation of an already successful collaboration between the two
companies. The airline technology sector is highly competitive,
with many companies – even airlines themselves – competing to
deliver next-gen retailing solutions. Sabre looks forward to
showing the court how dynamic this industry is and having airlines
and travel agencies explain how the industry actually works.
Sabre has committed to its airline customers and to the DOJ that
for a period of time after the transaction, it will continue to
offer Farelogix products at the same prices available today or
lower, and to support and invest in those products at the same
level or higher. In addition, Sabre has committed to offer to
extend any existing Sabre GDS or Farelogix Open Connect contracts
on the same terms, including price, for a period of at least three
years.
"These commitments underscore that Sabre's goal in acquiring
Farelogix is to strengthen our ability to provide our airline and
agency customers with the next-generation retailing, distribution,
and fulfillment products and services they need," said Menke.
Sabre and Farelogix have extended the termination date of their
acquisition agreement to April 30,
2020, allowing time to resolve the challenge by the DOJ.
Sabre will file its formal written response to the DOJ's complaint
in court at the appropriate time.
About Sabre
Sabre Corporation is the leading technology provider to the
global travel industry. Sabre's software, data, mobile and
distribution solutions are used by hundreds of airlines and
thousands of hotel properties to manage critical operations,
including passenger and guest reservations, revenue management,
flight, network and crew management. Sabre also operates a leading
global travel marketplace, which processes more than $120 billion of estimated travel spend annually
by connecting travel buyers and suppliers. Headquartered in
Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre
serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world.
Forward-looking statements
Certain statements in this release are forward-looking
statements about trends, future events, uncertainties and our plans
and expectations of what may happen in the future. Any statements
that are not historical or current facts are forward-looking
statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking
statements by terms such as "will," "confident," "enable," "plan,"
"expect," "believe," "anticipate," "may," "should," "would,"
"intend," "potential" or the negative of these terms or other
comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements involve known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause
Sabre's actual results, performance or achievements to be
materially different from any future results, performances or
achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include,
among others, the outcome and effects of any litigation or
regulatory reviews regarding the acquisition described in this
release, and, if successfully completed, closing, integration and
effects of the acquisition described in this release, the financial
performance of the company expected to be acquired, dependency on
transaction volumes in the global travel industry, particularly air
travel transaction volumes, including from airlines' insolvency,
suspension of service or aircraft groundings, travel suppliers'
usage of alternative distribution models, exposure to pricing
pressure in the Travel Network business, changes affecting travel
supplier customers, maintenance of the integrity of our systems and
infrastructure and the effect of any security breaches, failure to
adapt to technological advancements, competition in the travel
distribution market and solutions markets, implementation of
software solutions, reliance on third parties to provide
information technology services, the implementation and effects of
new or renewed agreements, dependence on establishing, maintaining
and renewing contracts with customers and other counterparties and
collecting amounts due to us under these agreements, dependence on
relationships with travel buyers, our collection, processing,
storage, use and transmission of personal data and risks associated
with PCI compliance, our ability to recruit, train and retain
employees, including our key executive officers and technical
employees, the effects of litigation and regulatory investigations,
adverse global and regional economic and political conditions,
including, but not limited to, economic conditions in countries or
regions with traditionally high levels of exports to China or that have commodities-based economies
and the effect of "Brexit" and uncertainty due to related
negotiations, risks arising from global operations, reliance on the
value of our brands, failure to comply with regulations, use of
third-party distributor partners, the financial and business
effects of acquisitions, the effects of the implementation of new
accounting standards, and tax-related matters, including the effect
of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. More information about potential
risks and uncertainties that could affect our business and results
of operations is included in the "Risk Factors" section in our
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on
August 1, 2019, in the "Risk Factors"
and "Forward-Looking Statements" sections in our Annual Report on
Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 15,
2019 and in our other filings with the SEC. Although we
believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking
statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future events,
outlook, guidance, results, actions, levels of activity,
performance or achievements. Readers are cautioned not to place
undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Unless required
by law, Sabre undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events
after the date they are made.
SABR-F
Media contact: sabrenews@sabre.com
Investor contact:
sabre.investorrelations@sabre.com
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SOURCE Sabre Corporation