About
the Acquisition
Who is Worldspan® being acquired by: Blackstone®, Travelport® or Galileo®?
Travelport is acquiring Worldspan. Management of the Worldspan GDS company will be merged with the management of the Galileo GDS company to form the Travelport GDS division.
What benefits does this acquisition bring?
Bringing Worldspan into the Travelport family allows us to build on the strengths of both companies, solidifying our positioning in the USA and complimenting our international footprint. Galileo and Worldspan have complimentary attributes such as the technology strength of Worldspan and the breadth of Galileo content and international/multi-national account expertise.
When can customers expect to take advantage of the results/benefits?
We are currently reviewing the integration opportunities that would most benefit our distribution and subscriber, customers and partners, and a portfolio of projects will be announced in the next few months which will set out the timelines under which customers will be able to benefit from the acquisition.
Is this an acquisition or a merger?
Travelport has acquired Worldspan and is merging the best-in-class solutions from both Worldspan and Galileo to better position our offering in today's market, as well as in the future.
What are the integration plans for Worldspan and Galileo?
To take full advantage of our combined strengths, Travelport must make sure that the integration of our companies is done right and done well. This effort will be lead by Pat Bourke, executive vice president of operations for Travelport, and Terry Conley, executive officer. Key employees from every functional area of the two companies are focused on bringing our products, services and organizations together. Supporting this process is the Integration Steering Committee, which meets regularly to review the progress of the integration and to provide direction. Gordon Wilson and Jeff Clarke are both members of this committee, along with other senior Travelport executives.
With this acquisition, where does Travelport stand in the global GDS market?
Upon close of the acquisition, Travelport will be the number one or two GDS in the top markets in which we compete. GDS's must compete with all forms of travel distribution, including supplier Websites and offline distribution, direct connections between suppliers and travel agents, and new GDS entrants. As part of the Travelport GDS, Galileo and Worldspan will be a stronger force in the GDS industry.
Is this acquisition to gain pure market share or to gain technology, or a combination?
This acquisition is another step in securing the future of the GDS by delivering better technology and more content for our customers. The Worldspan technology platform offers significant advantages for our customers in competing against the growing on-line booking trends (e.g. Worldspan's Shopping tool) while Galileo provides superior global content.
How will this acquisition benefit agencies that use Galileo?
Galileo-connected agencies will benefit from the combination of Galileo's breadth of content and Worldspan technology tools (e.g. shopping and Rapid Reprice).
How will this acquisition benefit agencies that use Worldspan?
Our plan is that Worldspan customers will have access to the breadth of content available on Galileo globally, which makes the combined offering more valuable by providing more revenue-generating opportunities, and more content for agencies to sell.
Galileo has done a very good job of selling against Worldspan and vice versa, how can Travelport now say that this is a great opportunity?
It is through sales competition that Travelport was able to determine the value of the Worldspan offering. We saw potential that could really optimize the existing Travelport offering.
How does Travelport ensure focus on product development and delivery during reorganization/integration?
At Travelport, it is important for us to stay focused on our day to day business, servicing our existing customers and winning new ones. To help us do this, we've created integration teams, made of key employees from both companies and from every functional area. These teams will be focused on bringing our products, services and our organizations together so the rest of us can do what we do best - providing industry-leading distribution services.
Will this acquisition change Travelport corporate strategy?
The addition of Worldspan is in keeping with Travelport corporate strategy which includes: Growth - investing in growth as well as focusing on our differentiation and execution; Innovation and an environment that encourages entrepreneurship and game-changing ideas; Fact-based decision making that takes into account underlying economics, investments and cost drivers; and Continuous Improvement, whether it's our quality, processes or efficiency.
How can I find out more information? How
can I ask questions?
IPlease return to frequently asked questions for updates or click here if your answer needs immediate attention.
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About Worldspan
Will Worldspan change its name? Will the new GDS division have a new name?
The company and overall brand name is Travelport. The Worldspan GDS will maintain its brand name; its brand identity will be changed to reflect it's ownership by Travelport as an 'Aligned' brand. This means it will have a new Travelport style logo in the same design as the Galileo logo (i.e.: Worldspan by Travelport). The new organization will be a single organization that sells a portfolio of products (Galileo, Worldspan and Apollo).
Will the Worldspan brand disappear?
Brands have impact, recognition and value. The company and overall brand name is Travelport. The Travelport GDS division will have product brands and those will be Galileo by Travelport and Worldspan by Travelport. The new organization will be a single organization that sells a portfolio of products (including Galileo, Worldspan and Apollo).
What is Worldspan's revenue?
2006 revenue was around $887M.
What is the Worldspan GDS share globally and/or by country?
Worldspan competes with all other forms of travel distribution. If we looked solely at other GDS's, Worldspan represents 16.9% of segment volume globally, and 31% in the USA (2006 MIDT airline transaction data).
How many employees are currently employed at Worldspan?
Over 1700.
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About Travelport and Galileo
Will Galileo change its name? Will the new combined company have a new name?
The company and overall brand name is Travelport. The Galileo GDS product will maintain its brand name. The new Travelport organization will be a single organization that sells a portfolio of products (Galileo, Worldspan and Apollo).
What is the Galileo GDS market share globally?
Galileo's global GDS market share is 22.4%
How many employees are currently employed at Travelport?
With the addition of Worldspan, Travelport now has 6,137 employees worldwide. The breakdown of this total is Travelport corporate 225; Galileo 1,617; Worldspan 1,735; and GTA 2560.
Where is Travelport's headquarters? Where is Galileo's?
The Travelport executive offices are in New York City and the global headquarters for the GDS business unit will be Langley, UK. This does not mean that all global positions are based at these offices - the location of our employees reflects the global nature of our company. We will continue to have regional GDS office in the Americas, EMEA and APAC.
Who is the Travelport management team?
The Travelport management team is lead by Jeff Clarke, President & CEO. Reporting to Jeff are: Eric Bock, EVP & General Counsel; Pat Bourke, EVP Operations & Chief Re-engineering Officer; Terry Conley, Executive Officer; Ken Esterow, President & CEO GTA; Jo-Anne Kruse, EVP Human Resources; Mike Rescoe, EVP & Chief Financial Officer; Gordon Wilson, President & CEO Travelport GDS.
What is the ownership structure of Travelport? Is Worldspan owned by Blackstone, Travelport or Galileo?
Worldspan has been acquired by Travelport and will form the Travelport GDS division along with Galileo, Apollo, Shepherd Systems, AiRes and Thor. The management of Worldspan and Galileo will be merged. Travelport is owned by the Blackstone Group of New York, Technology Crossover Ventures of Palo Alto, California and One Equity Partners of New York.
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About Technology & Products
If customers have both Worldspan and Galileo sales contacts, who do they contact once the transaction has closed?
Customers should continue to work with their current account management and sales teams for each of the respective products. Over time representatives of both companies will become familiar with the broader GDS offerings. As our knowledge base grows, so too will our offerings and range of service.
How quickly will Galileo customers be able to take advantage of Worldspan's shopping and pricing technology?
Travelport GDS will work towards increasing customer opportunity to access broader content and innovative products, with the accuracy and security in transactions that we have always had. The acquisition will allow us to move forward more quickly to realize our vision to be the world's leading supplier of informed travel choice. Examples of what customers can expect are:
- Enhanced Air Shopping - enhanced shopping will access a more robust data set utilizing logic that constantly looks for the lowest fare options to provide traditional and online travel agents with the richest response of informed travel choice.
- Common Availability Cache - the implementation of an availability cache for our combined customers will have a significant and direct benefit for airlines. The common availability cache will deliver benefits to both customers and suppliers, leveraging Galileo and Worldspan technologies to provide competitive shopping results. By reducing the volume of search transactions, we can help reduce the cost of polling for airlines.
- Rapid Reprice - we plan the introduction of industry-leading exchange and refund automation to manage the complex and time-consuming process of airline refunds and exchanges for travel agents. By reducing the time to serve and errors on airline ticket pricing, we look to provide significant cost benefits and increased productivity to travel agents and airlines. Through increased process automation, airline, agent and GDS will benefit commercially from increased ticket sales and productivity gains.
- Local content - by expanding availability of Galileo's local content (non-GDS) and associated technologies (such as Galileo Leisure, Galileo Rail, Low Cost Carrier Hub and National Vendor Platforms), Worldspan traditional and online travel agents will benefit from greatly enhanced range of content. This will also significantly increase the distribution reach for the local content suppliers without investing in additional technology developments (significantly reducing their cost to distribute).
- Car and Hotel - combining existing technologies of both GDS's will improve functionality and provide richer content and greater choice for customers. Suppliers will benefit from reduced distribution costs by removing associated duplicate network links and by consolidating shared content in the updating source data.
How many reservations / distribution technology cores will Travelport maintain going forward? What are our plans for reducing the number of GDS's in operation?
Three - keeping the best of all worlds! Travelport will maintain existing services and systems to the benefit of our customers. As we review the existing and future state of technology, of course we will make certain that data can be integrated for the most seamless and consistent user experience. The plan is to move as much of our offerings that make sense into a shared services model, and as such available to all GDS's.
Will suppliers be able to reduce the number of links they have to Worldspan and Galileo?
Convenience for suppliers is a key objective for the Travelport GDS division. Although the timeline cannot be determined immediately, there will be announcements of enhancements and new conveniences.
Will anyone be made to migrate between the GDS?
There will be no forced migrations between the GDS systems.
If an agency utilized multiple Travelport reservation systems, when will Travelport be offering a single front-end to reduce training and support costs?
We are currently evaluating our front-end strategy and will communicate any plans to offer a single user interface when and if we make a decision to move in this direction.
On which systems will Travelport be putting new customers? Will we migrate any existing customers to a different system?
New subscribers will continue to be able to choose the services that best meet their needs. The Worldspan acquisition gives Travelport more opportunity for shelf space with customers having a choice between Travelport GDS brands and offerings.
What products and/or functionality will be shared between the GDS's?
- Enhanced Air Shopping - enhanced shopping will access a more robust data set utilizing logic that constantly looks for the lowest fare options to provide traditional and online travel agents with the richest response of informed travel choice.
- Common Availability Cache - the implementation of an availability cache for our combined customers will have a significant and direct benefit for airlines. The common availability cache will deliver benefits to both customers and suppliers, leveraging Galileo and Worldspan technologies to provide competitive shopping results. By reducing the volume of search transactions, we can help reduce the cost of polling for airlines.
- Rapid Reprice - we plan the introduction of industry-leading exchange and refund automation to manage the complex and time-consuming process of airline refunds and exchanges for travel agents. By reducing the time to serve and errors on airline ticket pricing, we look to provide significant cost benefits and increased productivity to travel agents and airlines. Through increased process automation, airline, agent and GDS will benefit commercially from increased ticket sales and productivity gains.
- Local content - by expanding availability of Galileo's local content (non-GDS) and associated technologies (such as Galileo Leisure, Galileo Rail, Low Cost Carrier Hub and National Vendor Platforms), Worldspan traditional and online travel agents will benefit from greatly enhanced range of content. This will also significantly increase the distribution reach for the local content suppliers without investing in additional technology developments (significantly reducing their cost to distribute).
- Car and Hotel - combining existing technologies of both GDS's will improve functionality and provide richer content and greater choice for customers. Suppliers will benefit from reduced distribution costs by removing associated duplicate network links and by consolidating shared content in the updating source data.
Since all three systems are being retained, how will Travelport ensure adequate training on systems?
Service and support are of critical importance to us. Training is part of that support and a comprehensive training plan will be put into place.
We just converted to Apollo; will
we need to undergo another conversion?
Travelport GDS intends to maintain all three cores - Worldspan, Galileo and Apollo. No customer will be forced to migrate between the GDS systems that we operate. Upgrades are a natural part of technology toolsets, and are developed specifically to provide users with faster connectivity, more extensive resources, and easier-to-use interfaces. The GDS environment is no different. These are exciting times in the travel industry, and the wealth of opportunities in enhancements is just beginning to emerge for Galileo and Worldspan.
How will the integration affect Travelport offerings?
One of the goals of the acquisition is to impact Travelport offerings with technology and resources that open opportunities for our customers.
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About Customers
Is data center consolidation being considered? What actions will be taken to ensure that data center consolidation doesn't disrupt my service and what business continuity measures will be taken?
Any data center consolidation decisions will be made only after we have ensured that we can achieve a consolidation with no impact to our supplier or subscriber customers.
What impact does the combination of Worldspan and Galileo agency bookings have on customer's contract terms? Can they count both when calculating volume driven pricing?
Contracts will be honored in their own right.
If I have further questions who should
I call?
Please continue to contact the help desk and your account team as you have in the past. Commercial or business questions regarding a Worldspan, Galileo or Apollo solution should be directed to their respective account manager. Or, feel free to email us at myquestions@travelportworld.com.
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