December is officially The GDS Month - Sabre next

No sooner have Travelport-Worldspan been sharing a Christmas party, then rumours of a takeover of Sabre Holdings have begun to emerge.

And this time the source is that bastion of accuracy and financial knowledge, The Wall Street Journal.

A report on the WSJ.com website says the company, owners of the Sabre GDS, Travelocity and Lastminute.com, could be sold as early as this week to a private equity group for $3.75 billion.

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More consolidation perhaps? The article continues:

"The announcement fueled speculation that Sabre might consider pursuing an agreement with Amadeus, a travel-distribution company based in Madrid."

Our man in America, Dennis Schaal of Travel Weekly USA, who has written about a potential sale in recent months, emails:

"You have Sabre feeling paranoid about the Galileo [Travelport]-Worldspan combo, PLUS there is so much private-equity money out there - and the equity boys love the cash flow of a GDS coupled with the sexiness of Travelocity/Lastminute."

Blink and you may well miss something these days...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution