More than 90 percent of the 250 Travelocity Business employees are expected to stay on as the company folds into BCD Travel as a separate division, executives said. BCD Travel on Tuesday announced its acquisition of Travelocity Business, without disclosing a purchase price.
Some Dallas-area TBiz employees will move into BCD Travel offices there, and BCD is planning to open within six months a contact center near San Antonio to house TBiz counselors currently working in a Travelocity facility.
BCD Travel senior vice president Craig Bailey will oversee TBiz. BCD Travel Americas president Mike Janssen mentioned that TBiz vice president of operations Joel Bailey and vice president of account management Mindy Berger would join BCD. In a phone interview with The Beat, Janssen said that with rumors of TBiz's sale emerging in recent months, "a few" people left TBiz on their own. Sales exec Phil Crofton last month joined Travel and Transport.
BCD Travel also acquired the brand name "TBiz," which it will use for now.
Former Travelocity Business president Yannis Karmis, who will remain with Travelocity Global as president of the Travelocity Partner Network, said the time was right for TBiz to take a big step because of deficiencies in strategic meetings management, sourcing, consulting, benchmarking and international servicing__areas he said BCD covers well. Karmis also told The Beat that the decision to sell TBiz was not prompted by anything going on at parent Sabre Holdings, which is rumored to be seeking a public offering this year.
Janssen said there would be no "barreling out and forcing major changes," but TBiz clients that use partners through the Radius network will be given an opportunity to transition to BCD Travel operations around the world. "It will be a function of what the client wants," he said. Janssen also said there has been no significant change in the relationships between BCD Travel and Sabre or TBiz and Sabre for use of Sabre's global distribution system.
The executives declined to reveal a total travel sales figure for ten-year-old TBiz. The TMC considers itself one of the ten largest. Clients include Lockheed Martin, Wellpoint and Yahoo.
BCD Travel parent BCD Holdings in March announced 2012 sales of $22.8 billion, including $8.5 billion by partners. Parkmobile International, Park 'N Fly, online travel company Travix and industry automation and data management provider TRX also are part of the company.
This article has been updated from its original version to reflect a corrected client list for Travelocity Business and corrected spelling for Mindy Berger.