News release

Sabre and Compaq Join Forces to Advance State-of-the-Art Travel Technology

Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE: TSG), the leading provider of technology, distribution and marketing services for the travel industry, and Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) today announced an agreement under which Sabre will begin migrating its mainframe applications to Compaq's NonStop™ Himalaya™ server and database environment to create the next generation travel technology platform. Compaq's technology will play a key role in transforming travel by enabling Sabre to more efficiently address customer demands and make travel shopping, planning, and managing easier and faster.

Compaq's open system will provide Sabre's customers a continuously available (24x7) platform to power its dynamic air shopping system. Sabre becomes the first global distribution system (GDS) to take advantage of an open systems environment to power critical air shopping applications, which have helped fuel the explosive growth of Internet travel distribution. The NonStop platform offers superior response time and availability, enabling Sabre to meet the demands resulting from exponential growth in the use of its shopping application. Sabre anticipates this demand to grow as much as 70 percent year-over-year.

Once Sabre's dynamic air shopping application is fully integrated onto the Compaq NonStop platform, airlines and travel consolidators will be able to update their fares in the Sabre system faster and with greater frequency and reliability than with any other e-commerce system in the industry. Sabre's ability to instantly update airfare changes and seat availability through the NonStop platform will provide the most accurate, up-to-the-minute information without interruption.

"Our customers will have access to state-of-the-art air shopping algorithms, based on the most accurate and timely data in the industry, running on the best computing platform for the job," said Craig Murphy, chief technology officer at Sabre. "The move to Compaq's NonStop system represents a huge leap in travel distribution technology that will ultimately transform the way travel is shopped and booked, and enhance the interaction between travel suppliers and travel consumers. Sabre's ability to be first to identify and implement new technologies enables us to fulfill our vision for the travel industry and maintain our leading position in each travel distribution channel."

"This partnership with Sabre demonstrates how Compaq delivers world-class solutions for the most demanding business environments," said Howard Elias, Compaq senior vice president and general manager, Business Critical Solutions Group. "Compaq understands the complexity of Sabre's business and is working with them to build the most advanced real-time enterprise that will provide tremendous competitive advantage in the travel industry."

Online travel providers using Sabre's dynamic air shopping system will benefit from greater access, availability and content, along with new innovative shopping products, to provide the lowest airfares for travelers worldwide. This access to fare information includes a vast, ever-changing database averaging over 45 million fares and over 5 billion constructed fares (which are dynamically created for unique travel itineraries) that are available through the Sabre system.

"Maintaining this database of fares and complex fare rules is no easy task with over 300,000 changes on a typical day and up to 2 million fare changes in a single fare load during fare specials," said Murphy. "Now, with the NonStop platform, Sabre moves its technology leadership to the next level by providing the best, fastest solution for our customers."

With the new dynamic air shopping system, updates can be instantaneously reflected, since the NonStop platform continues to process transactions even as the new fares are being loaded into the system.

"Compaq's NonStop platform provides unmatched levels of scalability in a high-performance, open environment at a reduced total cost of ownership. These factors are absolutely crucial for Sabre as we continue to aggressively pursue and implement new technologies that address industry trends and vastly improve the customer experience throughout the entire travel chain," concluded Murphy.

Announcement Overview

Highlights of the announcement:

• Sabre's selection represents one of the largest Compaq NonStop installations ever. The value of the deal (including Compaq Global Services) is in excess of $100 million over the multi-year term of the agreement.
• Sabre is moving its air shopping system from a legacy mainframe environment to an open platform that provides availability and scalability, and decreased total cost of ownership (TCO).
• The dynamic air travel shopping application is aimed at providing the industry's best fare shopping algorithm on the best enterprise computing platform.
• Implementing the dynamic air travel shopping application on the Compaq platform is expected to reduce Sabre's total cost of ownership by 40 percent, improve development productivity by 100 percent and reduce cycle time to update fare requirements (rules) by 75 percent.
• The open systems platform will significantly speed time-to-market for integration of new technologies and third party applications. Moving to common industry standard programming languages also means greater access to a trained workforce.
• The Himalaya platform will support the exponential growth of Sabre applications as the consumer online channel continues to expand.
• The NonStop platform will provide the travel industry's next evolution of 24x7 availability—no downtime or system degradation for database loads.
• Sabre's decision was bolstered by Compaq's strategy to move its 64-bit computing platforms to Intel® Corporation's Itanium™ Processor Family (IPF), providing a clear long-term roadmap for the NonStop platform.
• Sabre's decision was significantly influenced by Compaq's unique Zero Latency Enterprise (ZLE) capability, which allows the integration of immense volumes of information—such as low fare and availability information—into one database for up-to-the-second accuracy and real-time use.

Visit the Compaq Sabre announcement site to view the webcast and for more information.

About Sabre

Sabre is the leading provider of technology, distribution and marketing services for the travel industry. Headquartered in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, the company has approximately 6,000 employees in 45 countries. Sabre maintains an ownership interest of approximately 70 percent in Travelocity.com (Nasdaq: TVLY), the world's leading online B2C travel site; and it owns GetThere, the world's leading provider of Web-based B2B travel reservation systems. Sabre is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TSG). More information on Sabre is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.sabre.com.

About Compaq

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation ("Compaq") is a leading global provider of enterprise technology and solutions. Compaq designs, develops, manufactures and markets hardware, software, solutions and services, including industry-leading enterprise storage and computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, communication products, and desktop and portable personal computers that are sold in more than 200 countries. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com.