Amadeus agreed to acquire hotel IT firm Newmarket International,

"which serves around 22,000 unique properties in 154 countries" and "operates in the group and event management segment of the hotel industry," according to Amadeus. The deal, valued at $500 million, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014. Newmarket would operate "as a stand-alone business within Amadeus’ Global Hotel Group," which sells technology to the hotel industry. Amadeus Global Hotels Group head Jeff Edwards said he sees the opportunity for Newmarket's MeetingBroker product, which has "bookable meetings space for 16,000 hotels," to eventually be made available to Amadeus global distribution subscribers.