Travelport To Pay $1.4 Billion for Worldspan

Travelport Ltd., a New York-based owner of travel services company Galileo and Orbitz.com, has agreed to buy travel-booking service Worldspan for approximately $1.4 billion. Simultaneous to the execution of the merger agreement, Worldspan completed a recapitalization plan, through which Travelport loaned $125 million to Worldspan in exchange for a payment in kind (PIK) note which Travelport funded through cash on hand. In addition, one of Travelport’s parent companies also loaned Worldspan $125 million in exchange for a PIK note. Blackstone Group and Technology Crossover Ventures bought Travelport from Cendant earlier this year for $4.3 billion. Court Square Capital (f.k.a. Citigroup VC) and Teachers’ Private Capital bought Worldspan in 2004 for around $900 million from Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines and American Airlines. www.travelport.com www.worldspan.com< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />