American Express today announced the Oct. 1 completion of its acquisition of Rosenbluth International
(BTNonline, July 15), to be followed by a 12 to 18 month integration process that officials said will require the services of former Rosenbluth executives Hal Rosenbluth and Alex Wasilov.
Working with American Express Global Travel Services president Charles Petruccelli, the pair will involve clients in an integration of roughly 18,000 combined employees from two corporate cultures that they claimed have common values and "vastly" more similarities than differences. Asked about technology integration, Petruccelli said, "We're looking to completely integrate over the next 12 months. Automatically moving [Rosenbluth into Amex] would be a mistake." The two firms had a combined 2002 booked travel volume of $18.5 billion, they said.