In 2013 more than $85 billion of travel spending ran through Travelport's computers in Atlanta. Few travelers knew its name. When an agent or a booking site searched for a flight, the request often went through one of its three reservation systems: Travelport, Galileo or Worldspan. The company was built from pieces of the airline industry's oldest technology. In September 2014 its private equity owners took it public, betting that this plumbing still had value.

Born Inside Cendant

Travelport grew out of the travel distribution division of Cendant, the company that also owned hotel and car rental brands. In 2006 Blackstone and its partners bought the business, and it took the name Travelport. In 2007 it bought Worldspan, a rival reservation system. Travelport connected airlines and hotel chains with online and offline travel agencies around the world. It earned a fee on each booking that passed through its network.

Elliott's Exit Ticket

Travelport sold 30 million shares at $16 each in September 2014, raising $480 million, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as TVPT. Airlines pushed travelers to book on their own websites, which squeezed the fees that systems like Travelport collected. In late 2018 Siris Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital, an affiliate of the activist fund Elliott, agreed to buy Travelport for $15.75 a share in cash. The deal closed in May 2019.

Cover: Entrance to the Port of Honfleur, Johan Barthold Jongkind. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the entrance to a busy port (Travelport).