Amadeus announced plans to acquire French biometrics and identity services provider Idemia Public Security for €1.2 billion, which the travel technology company said will accelerate its growth in airports and border technology.
IPS, which has about 3,300 employees and more than 600 customers in both public and private sectors, provides iris, fingerprint and facial recognition solutions. Amadeus said integrating those capabilities will help digitize core travel processes and help establish a "secure identity layer" throughout the travel journey.
"Alongside AI, biometrics is one of the most transformative technologies for delivering fast, convenient and secure end‑to‑end traveler journeys," Amadeus president and CEO Luis Maroto said in a statement. "This will enable us to deliver our services across more traveler touch points, in turn reducing friction, and improving the traveler experience, while supporting our ambition to further expand biometric capabilities, extending traveler ID throughout the journey."
The acquisition, which Amadeus expects to complete in mid-2027 pending regulatory approval and other closing conditions, builds on Amadeus' acquisition of biometrics solutions provider Vision-Box, which the company completed in 2024.
Amadeus noted that IPS' solutions extend beyond processing passengers, also working with such areas as access control and government-grade biometric identification. That will further extend Amadeus' capabilities in secure identify, according to the company.
Amadeus said the acquisition price could go up to €1.35 billion if certain performance metrics are met.