Amadeus, a travel technology company based in Madrid, has agreed to buy IDEMIA Public Security (IPS) for €1.2 billion after a competitive bidding process. The deal also includes a possible earn-out of up to €150 million for Advent-backed IDEMIA, depending on performance milestones.
The deal still needs regulatory approval and is expected to close by mid-2027. This is Amadeus’s second acquisition in 2026, following its February purchase of SkyLink, an AI corporate travel booking startup. It is also the company’s second biometrics deal in two years.
With IPS, Amadeus gains access to regulated identity infrastructure, including passenger processing, government-level biometric identification, access control, and border data systems. Together, Vision-Box and IPS allow Amadeus to offer a full biometric solution that covers the entire journey, from booking to boarding and into government border management systems.
IPS is based in France, has about 3,300 employees worldwide, and works with more than 600 public- and private-sector clients. IDEMIA, which owns IPS until the deal closes, was reorganised in 2024 into three divisions: public security, smart identity, and secure transactions. Last year, IN Groupe, the French state printing company, bought the Smart Identity division in a deal worth up to €1 billion.
Competitors like SITA, NEC, Thales, and Collins Aerospace also offer biometric technology for airports. However, none combine these solutions with the booking, inventory, and operations platform that gives Amadeus its distribution advantage.
By acquiring IPS, Amadeus gains government-grade identity credentials, enabling it to compete at the border and law-enforcement levels. Most travel technology companies cannot access this segment, which requires the NIST-validated biometric accuracy that IPS has shown in independent tests.
