The ratings on Sabre Holdings Corp. take into account the company's agreement with EDS Corp. for the latter to acquire Sabre's airline infrastructure outsourcing business and internal information technology infrastructure assets for $670 million. Sabre also announced a 10-year service contractùvalued at $2.2 billionùfor EDS to manage Sabre's information technology systems. Also, both companies have agreed to jointly market information technology solutions and services to the travel and transportation industry. The divestitures improve Sabre's business risk profile by eliminating a lower-margin business in which it was a niche participant. Sabre's operations will now be comprised primarily of travel marketing and distribution, in which it owns the leading computerized reservation system and 70% of Travelocity.com, the largest on-line travel booking site.
