Electronic Data Services, Plano, TX, has agreed to acquire the airline infrastructure outsourcing business and internal IT infrastructure assets of Sabre Holdings Corp., Fort Worth, TX, for $670 million.
The companies will collaborate in marketing efforts as well.
EDS, a global services company, signed a 10-year contract for $2.2 billion to manage IT systems. The outsourcing deal also allows EDS to provide IT services to Sabre clients American Airlines and US Airways. Those contracts are worth about $600 million in revenue. The deal is expected to close in the middle of the year, at which time 4,200 Sabre employees will transfer to EDS.
EDS and Sabre plan to jointly market Sabre's airline software solutions, to which EDS will contribute about $20 million over the next two years. EDS also has agreed to move all of its travel bookings to the Sabre system and will implement Sabre's GetThere corporate booking platform throughout its organization
