Privacy policy for Sabre

This monday morning when we arrived at work, things were a little different, actually very different.
We had voicemails from our CEO (each and every phone) and then there was a company wide call with almost no notice. Some of us knew what this was going to be about as there was a big splash in our morning newspapers, but for me, this was an absolute shocker. Sabre was being acquired by a couple of private equity firms namely Silverlake and TPG.

I didn't believe my eyes and ears when I heard this..especially the private equity part. Life the week before, month before, year before was just so normal that a change like this was not very evident. People had been specualting about Sabre being taken over by Amex etc, but even that was when it was in doldrums, the post 9/11 timeframe. We have been doing very well this year with travel demand in the US and the world peaking, so all of us were kind of under the impression that we were in stable equilibrium.

Our CEO's call was a normal one where I thought he made a good attempt of holding his emotions/opinions under control. He had grown richer by a few million dollars you see :). People asked about benefits, options, changes in Q&A and the call ended. I asked my VP seated next to me if he had seen any signs of this coming and he replied in the affirmative. People on the top of the ladder can see a lot more than I can, but he pointed out to something very interesting. He said that our stock price had been rallying quite a bit and he saw that as an indicator. Very true! We were flat for around 2-3 years and suddenly we had seen it increase over the last one year, the increase was steeper in the last few months. I had actually attributed that to "increasing" travel demand and us signing new agreements, but given the fact that we were in an acquisition spree ourselves and the hint(I thought I sensed one:)) that our CEO had thrown in our previous quarterly call, I thinking the writing was there on the wall. It was just that I had not seen it..Maybe my mind was wandering elsewhere..

Corporate America is dynamic. Empires are built and un-built in days! I feel special to be in one such move, although I really don't know what this holds for me in the future. For now, business is as usual....Well, atleast I don't know the schemes going on @ the top.