Lanyon Restructures To Focus On New Travel Industry Developments
London, August 23, 1999 - Lanyon® Ltd. today announced its restructuring into two separate businesses, and the sale of its connectivity business to Attachmate Corporation. As a result of the sale, Arlington, Texas, based Lanyon, Inc. and London based Lanyon Applications Systems Ltd. are able to accelerate the launch of new travel distribution technologies. Both companies are now 100% owned by their founder, Nick Lanyon, and his family.
Lanyon, Inc. will focus on multi-channel distribution technology, delivering applications supporting both traditional GDSs and emerging distribution channels. It is now led by Brad Fred, who joined the company from Perot Systems a year ago and who has recently been promoted to President. It is enjoying considerable success in the hotel sector, with 45 chains using its products to market over 30,000 properties.
Lanyon Application Systems Ltd. will concentrate on growing its new object-oriented Advance™ technology and exploiting the increased availability of MIDT data. It has appointed Ian Tunnacliffe as Executive VP, with the mission to bring to market a range of products and services to complement its industry-leading AUDIT product, in use by 65 airlines. Mr Tunnacliffe, who joins on August 23 (initially as a consultant), was General Manager of Speedwing Airline Services' Passenger Business, and previously held management positions at both Amadeus and Galileo.
Both companies will now be able to transform their businesses, releasing new products, introducing fresh corporate identities, and launching new web sites. The new sites, which are already in operation, will be progressively developed from being purely informational to being the primary channels for 24-hour customer service in the over 50 countries in which the companies do business. Customers can reach them through a shared navigational page at
"The change is much more than cosmetic", said Nick Lanyon, Chairman of both companies. "We've invested heavily in new technologies in recent years. Some of this work we've put into the OpenTravel Alliance, as the foundation of the OTA's XML initiative in the travel industry. Lanyon Application Systems' Advance product line has also benefited. The Attachmate opportunity has enabled us to start serious exploitation of this investment."
Brad Fred said: "We're having another great year, with significant growth in RFPassist™, the release of our multi-channel DRS publishing application, a new international rate desk for airlines and travel agencies, and now, with the restructuring, the opportunity to accelerate delivery of our PropertyVault™ XML-based strategy for hotels. Our success is a tribute to our staff, who have created a successful, customer-focused, independent company. Our non-connectivity business grew 60% last year, and it will now be easier to maintain this pace."
Ian Tunnacliffe said: 'It's an exciting time to be joining, with Lanyon Application Systems about to release its new marketing data analysis product for airlines. MarketIntelligence uses secure Internet delivery to airline sales people, both in their offices and at their travel agency accounts. We've also just had the first solution based on our Advance technology accepted by its customer, with others in the pipeline.''
For further information:
Lanyon Application Systems Ltd: Nick Lanyon, +44-207-371-6881 or
Lanyon Inc: Brad Fred, +1-817-226-5656 or