CHICAGO (Reuters) — Two private equity firms said they reached a deal to buy Sabre Holdings Corp., owner of the Travelocity hotel and flight-booking Web site, for $4.45 billion as they look to profit from a worldwide boom in travel services.The move, by private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners, follows Blackstone Group’s $4.3 billion purchase of Travelport in August, and could make rivals Expedia Inc. and Priceline.com Inc. takeover targets.

The wave of privatisations comes amid strong bookings growth for travel websites, but only modest share gains.

“After a thorough assessment, we concluded that this transaction represents a compelling outcome for our shareholders, customers and employees,” said Sam Gilliland, Sabre’s chief executive.

Sabre has about 9,000 employees and annual sales of more than $2.5 billion. Its Travelocity site is the second-largest US-based online travel agency after Expedia.

The company has been operating travel reservation systems since the 1960s, when it was part of American Airlines parent, AMR Corp. Sabre made its initial public offering in 1996 and launched Travelocity the same year. Sabre spun off completely from AMR in 2000.

Under the terms of the deal, Sabre shareholders would get $32.75 per share in cash, or $4.45 billion overall — an eight percent premium to Sabre’s closing price on Monday, when talk of a deal sharply lifted its shares.

The price would also be a premium of 30 percent over Sabre’s average closing share price over the preceding two months, the company said.

At the beginning of November, its shares were trading at the same level that they had two years earlier.