News this weekend lastminute.com UK boss Mark Maddock had quit brought on rumors Sabre may be planning to sell the travel entity.
Mark Maddock, who was originally praised for his strategic prowess by lastminute, steps down under cloudy speculation as to exactly why. This report via TTG Digital suggests the company has been underperforming, but there’s no word from Sabre as to sale speculation. If the story from Travel Weekly makes any difference, apparently Maddock is not going to be replaced, but instead stood in for by Matthew Crummack until?
With Sabre’s Travelocity shedding dead wood and revamping its forward momentum before and since the Sabre IPO, it seems reasonable to assume Sabre may be considering the sale of the somewhat redundant lastminute workhorse.
Meanwhile, BreakingTravelNews reports today that Sabre has launched three spanking new data products; Customer Experience Manager, Guest Connect Upsell, and TripCase Corporate to supposedly help hoteliers design a better looking and booking experience for guests and passengers.
Comment from Sabre on the Customer Experience software sound a bit PR fluffy from collaborator ResponseTek CEO Syed Hasan:
“We are excited to collaborate with a leading solution provider like Sabre Airline Solutions and take our combined expertise to market. Sabre Airline Solutions is demonstrating its commitment to customer experience by offering Sabre Customer Experience Manager to its clients.”
We contacted Sabre’s press department for comment on the Maddock situation, but as of yet we’ve receieved no response. As of this writing Sabre Corp. is at $16.54.
