Amadeus Lays Down £538m For Accenture’s Navitaire

Spain’s Amadeus will be buying Accenture subsidiary Navitaire for $830m (£538m) to boost its travel technology business.

Navitaire specialises in business and technology platforms for the airline industry, selling in to around 50 operators.

Services it provides include cost-cutting software and revenue-generation platforms, as well as accounting and business intelligence.

Amadeus said 550 Navitaire employees, including the senior management team, will transfer to Amadeus. Remaining employees look set to stay with Navitaire’s Software Utility Services division, which is not included in the sale.

Low-cost and hybrid-carrier

Amadeus CEO Luis Maroto said that the acquisition will give his firm a leg up in the low-cost and hybrid-carrier segments.

Maroto said: “Airlines of all shapes and sizes face an increasingly competitive market for an increasingly demanding traveler, and this transaction will give us the ability to serve all airlines with technology that can enable them to drive new revenues and contain their costs.”

Amadeus thinks that the acquisition will complement its ‘Altea’ suite of offerings, allowing it to serve a wider group of airlines. Some of Navitaire’s existing customers include Monarch, Vueling, and Thomson Cook.

Amadeus and Accenture expect to close the Navitaire acquisition in the fourth quarter of calendar 2015, following regulatory approvals.

In a separate deal, Accenture and Amadeus will be teaming up to form an alliance to help airlines transition through the “digital transformation” taking place in the industry.

Accenture and Amadeus will jointly focus on digital travel services, with an emphasis on commercial passenger operations in order to provide a better customer experience from “door to door.”

“The travel industry is a strategic market for Accenture, and we continue to grow our practice in this area to help our clients better serve their digital customers,” said Eric Schaeffer, senior managing director, Accenture.  “The combination of products and solutions from Accenture, Amadeus and Navitaire in this alliance will create a unique offering in the market that no single provider currently offers.  We’re also excited to be leveraging our experience in the airline industry and our technology expertise to provide Amadeus with a range of outsourcing and R&D services.”

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