Travelport Acquires Mobile Travel Technologies

Travelport has acquired Mobile Travel Technologies Ltd (MTT), a private company based in Dublin, Ireland.

MTT provides a mobile travel platform and product set that allows airlines, hotels, corporate travel management companies and travel agencies to engage with their customers through sophisticated, tailored mobile services including apps, mobile web and intelligent mobile messaging.

MTT's mobile apps and services are then delivered, under the customer brand, to smartphones, tablets and wearable devices, including the Apple Watch.

Its clients include some of travel's most progressive companies such as easyJet, Singapore Airlines, Saudia, BCD Travel, Capita Travel and Events and the LATAM Airlines Group.

Services include mobile search, booking and check-in as well as products such as MTT Engage, which provides real-time, personalized messages and offers to the traveler, and MTT Concierge Live, which delivers a "day of travel" experience via a traveler's mobile device including live, contextual travel updates and airport guidance.

Gordon Wilson , Travelport's President and CEO, said, "It is a natural extension of Travelport's strategy of redefining travel commerce to have acquired, what we believe to be, the largest and most successful company focused on delivering sophisticated mobile services and apps to the travel industry. Adding MTT as an expanded capability to our existing travel commerce platform extends our reach further, and at the higher value add end of the service spectrum for our airline, hotel, travel management company and travel agency clients. At the same time, MTT will benefit from the network effect of Travelport in terms of infrastructure, our relationships with additional prospective clients and access to our industry leading content. We will run MTT as a wholly owned subsidiary of Travelport, retaining existing CEO, Gerry Samuels , along with his senior team, so that they can maintain their singular focus on the mobile sector and the deep seated customer relationships they build."

The acquisition was funded from Travelport's cash resources. Travelport expects the acquisition to be neutral for its financial performance in 2015 and accretive in future years.

In connection with the transaction, Travelport issued grants totalling €14,400,000 to 28 MTT executives, to be paid in the first quarter of 2018 in Travelport common shares based on MTT performance targets and other terms and conditions. Based on a closing price of Travelport common shares and foreign exchange rate, assuming all of the awards are earned and paid, Travelport would deliver approximately 1,152,086 common shares to MTT executives in 2018. The ultimate number of Travelport common shares that are delivered to MTT executives will, however, be based upon the closing price and foreign exchange rate at the time of such conversion in 2018, as well as MTT performance and the other terms and conditions set forth in the awards.

Travelport's acquisition of MTT follows other recent investments it has made as part of its ongoing strategy to redefine travel commerce, with a particular emphasis on the fast growing digital economy. These investments include Travel IT, a next generation German tour operator distribution system; Hotelzon, a hotel distribution company focused on enabling independent hotels to take part in the online corporate travel economy and Locomote, an Australian based corporate travel applications development company.

Travelport has also invested in, and expanded, eNett, a pioneering B2B electronic payments company which now operates in 47 countries around the world and continues to grow rapidly.