Before Galileo International sold a single share, it belonged to 11 airlines. United Airlines, British Airways, KLM, Swissair and US Airways were among the owners of this Illinois company. It ran the computer systems travel agents used to find a fare and book a seat, sold under the Galileo and Apollo names. In July 1997 the airlines took it public, and a piece of the plumbing behind every plane ticket went on the New York Stock Exchange.

United's Apollo Meets Europe

Galileo's roots go back to 1971, when United Airlines built Apollo as its own internal reservation system. United later rented Apollo terminals to travel agents. In Europe, a group of airlines built a rival system called Galileo. In September 1993 the two combined into one partnership, with headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois, near O'Hare. The business earned a booking fee each time an agent reserved a seat, a room or a rental car, and its screens sat in about 13,000 agency locations by 1997.

From Airlines to Cendant

Galileo priced its offering at $24.50 a share in July 1997 and listed on the NYSE under the ticker GLC. The airline owners sold part of their stakes, and United stayed the largest holder. The internet soon pushed fares onto websites, yet those sites still needed systems like Galileo underneath. In June 2001 Cendant agreed to buy the company. The deal closed that October for about $1.8 billion in stock and cash, and Cendant also took on about $550 million of debt.

Cover: Even the Planets are Watching with Interest the Arrival of the Famous Comet, plate 9 from La Comète De 1857, Honoré-Victorin Daumier. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for planets watching the sky (Galileo, the astronomer).