Amadeus acquisition of TravelTainment receives approval from German competition authority

19  Septembre 2006

"We are very pleased to receive the German competition authority's approval for this transaction and we anticipate finalising the acquisition process shortly," says Philippe Chérèque, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Amadeus. "We can confirm that the existing management team of Ralf Usbeck and Michael Kalt will continue to drive this innovative business forward."

Further information will follow as soon as the deal is closed.

Notes to the editors:

About TravelTainment
TravelTainment, headquartered in Aachen/Germany, is an Application Service and Content Provider for the Travel Industry. The company provides consumer-optimised IT solutions for the effective sale of travel products.

TravelTainment AG provides booking engine technology to the German leisure market. Since 2000, TravelTainment has been Venture Capital backed by an international investor consortium led by TVM Capital, Boston and Munich.

The company's internet booking engine (TT-IBE) uses unique "fuzzy logic" software technology to find suitable alternative travel offers. In addition, TravelTainment offers the complete service for customers' websites such as layout, content management system, internet booking engine and hosting. The BistroPortal module for agents and retailers is an extremely powerful tool to optimise consultancy and increase sales. More than 4.000 German agencies use BistroPortal.

TravelTainment's geo-referenced resort and destination content comprises of high quality images, 360° panoramic views, information on countries and regions as well as texts on all relevant resorts, including details on cities, beaches, hotels, leisure activities and places of interest.

TravelTainment with its subsidiary IFF GmbH in Bochum has about 85 employees.

About Amadeus
Amadeus is a chosen technology partner for providers, sellers, and buyers of travel. The company provides distribution, IT and point-of-sale solutions to help its customers adapt, grow and succeed in the fast-changing travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (airlines, hotels, car rental companies, railway companies, ferry lines, cruise lines, insurance companies and tour operators), travel sellers (travel agencies) and travel buyers (corporations and travellers). Solutions are grouped in four solution categories – Distribution & Content, Sales & e-Commerce, Business Management and Services & Consulting.

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters & marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations – data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires and Bangkok. At market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations in 75 countries covering more than 215 markets. The company has nearly 6,700 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. Amadeus' revenue for the year ended 31 December was €2,418.3m.

For further information, please click here.