CD Cendant

PARSIPPANY, N.J., and NEW YORK, Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The completion of the sale of Cendant Corporation's (NYSE:CD) Travelport business today to an affiliate of The Blackstone Group for $4.3 billion in cash, subject to closing adjustments, represents the leading private equity firm's largest equity investment in the technology sector to date. Blackstone has agreed to sell 14% of the new entity to Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) on completion. First announced on June 30, 2006, the sale of Travelport to Blackstone has taken less than 60 days to close, making it one of the fastest closing M&A transactions of its size and scope ever. "Exciting opportunities are on the horizon for Travelport, as we continue to leverage our unique portfolio of assets-from the highest quality products and services to our dedicated people and diverse geographic mix," said Travelport's CEO and President, Jeff Clarke. "As an independent company, we are fully committed to offering our business-to-business customers and consumers exceptional travel experiences. We look forward to growing and strengthening our leadership position in the travel industry, while building on our culture of excellence and taking the company to the next level of profitable growth." "Clearly, the travel industry is driven by the winds of consumer demographics and rapidly growing new markets such as China and India," said Blackstone's Senior Managing Director, Chip Schorr. "In this context, we expect Travelport's widely recognized brands, global reach, local expertise, and world-class management team will continue to bolster our view of Travelport as the most relevant company in the travel space." About The Blackstone Group The Blackstone Group, a global private investment and advisory firm, was founded in 1985. The firm has raised a total of more then $63 billion for alternative asset investing since its formation of which approximately $30 billion has been for private equity investing. The Private Equity Group is currently investing its fifth general private equity fund with commitments of $15.6 billion, and has over 60 experienced professionals with broad sector expertise. Blackstone's other core businesses include Private Real Estate Investing, Corporate Debt Investing, Hedge Funds, Mutual Fund Management, Private Placement, Marketable Alternative Asset Management, and Investment Banking Advisory Services. Further information is available at http://www.blackstone.com/. About Travelport Travelport, one of the world's largest and most geographically diverse travel companies, is dedicated to creating the exceptional travel experiences the world demands. Across more than 130 countries and through a network of over 8,000 local travel professionals, Travelport delivers greater choice, tremendous travel content and cost savings to travelers, travel professionals and travel suppliers every day. Travelport offers a wide range of business and consumer services, from distribution technology and travel packaging to retail sales and solutions. Travelport operates over 20 leading brands, including Orbitz, an online travel agency; Galileo, a global distribution system (GDS); and GTA, a wholesaler of global travel content. Key Facts About Travelport: -- An integrated, focused leader in a global, dynamic $6 trillion industry that processes over 100 million transactions annually -- A network of more than 8,000 employees and customers across more than 130 countries -- A well-established presence in the travel market of roughly 30 years and a portfolio of over 20 leading travel brands including Orbitz, Galileo and Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) -- Travelport provides access to more than 425 airlines, 75,000 hotels, 28,000 car rental locations and 7,500 tourist attractions -- A Global Distribution System that occupies the number 1, 2 or 3 position on all continents -- Connecting travel suppliers to approximately 52,000 travel agency locations and some of the world's leading online travel sites including Orbitz, CheapTickets and ebookers -- Delivering over 20 million hotel bookings annually-that's enough to fill every one of the guest rooms at the world's largest hotel every night for over 11 years -- Reserving over 10.5 million cars per year-placed in one line, these rentals would stretch 30,000 miles, a line of vehicles long enough to circle the globe -- Galileo was voted Best Travel Distribution Company in 2005 and Best Reservation System for 2006 -- J.D. Power and Associates noted that Orbitz.com had the highest customer satisfaction for hotels booked through independent travel web sites in its 2005 Independent Hotel Web Site Study(SM).* -- Orbitz has received awards from The Independent Customer Respect Study and The Best in the Business Travel Awards -- Providing convenient, cost-saving e-ticketing on over 120 airlines, which not only saves the airlines millions of dollars annually but also saves 13 acres of forest per month -- Orbitz was the first, and we believe remains the only, online travel agency to offer a dedicated Customer Care Team -- comprising former air traffic controllers and travel agents through the OrbitzTLC Center -- that monitors US travel conditions and updates customers 24/7 * Study based on responses from 3,668 consumers who booked their hotel reservations through an independent travel Web site. http://www.jdpower.com/. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Statements preceded by, followed by or that otherwise include the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "projects," "estimates," "plans," "may increase," "may fluctuate" and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "should," "would," "may" and "could" are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. Any statements that refer to expectations or other characterizations of future events, circumstances or results are forward-looking statements. Various risks could cause future results to differ from those expressed by the forward-looking statements included in this press release. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date stated, or if no date is stated, as of the date of this press release. DATASOURCE: Travelport CONTACT: Elliot Bloom of Travelport, +1-212-413-1832, Mobile, +1-917-783-2262; or John Ford of The Blackstone Group, +1-212-583-5559, Mobile, +1-917-952-3275 Web site: http://www.cendant.com/ http://www.blackstone.com/ http://www.jdpower.com/

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