Lufthansa Group says it may shortly sell its IT infrastructure division to IBM, while also outsourcing its IT infrastructure services to IBM for seven years.
The deal "will be signed shortly", said a company statement today. A sale wouldn't close until early next year.
The German national airline is in the process of splitting its Systems business into three companies: Infrastructure (which helps support customers' business processes), Airline Solutions (which helps 300 airlines with passenger and cargo management, flight operations and aircraft maintenance), and Industry Solutions.
Only Infrastructure is up for sale now. All of its 1,400 employees would move to IBM under the proposal.
Since 2012, Lufthansa Group, which owns Europe's largest airline by revenue, has cut thousands of job. But it still hasn't reached its operating profit target.
The IBM deal could save the airline group about euro 70 million a year for seven years.
Reuters reports that the rival companies that were also interested in the business were HP and Atos.