Sabre went public in 2014 for the second time. The company began life as a division of American Airlines, building one of the first computer systems to book airline seats. AMR spun it off completely in 2000. Silver Lake and TPG took it private in 2007. Seven years later the owners brought it back to market. By then Sabre ran a giant travel marketplace, airline software and Travelocity, the consumer booking site.

A Seat Map in a Mainframe

Sabre sat in the middle of the travel business. Travel agencies and websites searched it for fares and booked seats, hotels and cars. Airlines paid it to run their reservations, check-in and flight planning. Much of that still ran on IBM mainframes, and the prospectus warned that fewer programmers knew the old technology each year. The bet was that travel would keep growing, and every booking would pass through Sabre's pipes.

Back on the Board

Sabre priced at $16 a share in April 2014 and listed on Nasdaq as SABR. The owners used the offering to cut a heavy debt load from the buyout. Sabre sold Travelocity to Expedia in 2015 and kept its focus on the business side of travel. The pandemic grounded flights in 2020 and hit bookings hard. Sabre is still public on Nasdaq, with its headquarters in Southlake, Texas.

Cover: Sketches of a Mounted Chasseru and a Cavalry Officer with Drawn Saber, Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a cavalry officer with a drawn saber (Sabre).