Sabre Holdings, owner of retail travel products and provider of distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry, has agreed to be acquired by US venture capital firms Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group for $4.5-billion deal, translating to $32.75 per share.

Sabre reported total revenues $2.5 billion in 2005, and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TSG.

Once part of American Airlines, Sabre had bought out the online travel and entertainment retailer Lastminute.com, which was launched in 1988, for $1.1 billion last year.

Sabre also owns Travelocity, the second-largest online travel booking business in the US and sabreairlinesolutions.com, which provides solutions and services to optimise operations and reduce costs for airlines, airports and government agencies.

According to analysts, the deal, which is the latest in a series of takeovers of online travel booking firms, was a reflection of the strong consumer demand for travel-related e-commerce. They do not expect the deal to impact users of Lastminute or Travelocity.

In 2002, Sabre, which has its global headquarters in Southlake, Texas, had entered in to an agreement with Indian IT firm NIIT's US subsidiary for sourcing software development

Sabre has approximately 8,900 employees in 45 countries and it does not expect changes in its current executive management team.

Silver Lake Partners is the leading private equity firm focused solely on investments in technology companies operating at scale. Its portfolio includes market leaders like Flextronics, Gartner, Instinet, IPC, NASDAQ, Network General, NXP, Seagate, Thomson, and UGS.

Texas Pacific Group Ventures (TPGV), the growth fund of Texas pacific Group, manages over $1 billion of capital and is focused on funding and growth of technology, biotechnology and consumer companies.