[7] It works mostly with airlines to develop travel software, such as booking websites, and counts LATAM, easyJet, Virgin Australia, Air China and JetBlue among its customers.

[6] To begin with, Datalex produced check-in and reservations technology but the decline of the airline industry in the late 1980s focused the company on global distribution systems.

[12] On 15 January 2019, Datalex issued a shock profit warning revealing it had misstated revenues in relation to a major customer (thought to be Lufthansa) in the first half of the previous year.

Datalex warned that it expected to report an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) loss of between $1m (€870,000) and $4m (€3.5m), compared with the consensus view among analyst for an almost $16m profit (€14.1m).

[13][14] The profit alert came only eight weeks after Datalex issued a positive trading update, saying it had been performing in line with expectations up to 23 November 2018 and that it was “confident” about delivering double-digit percentage EBITDA growth for the full year.

[14] On 6 February 2019, Ireland's Central Bank opened an investigation into the company's November trading statement after Datalex appointed auditors PwC to review a possible accounting issue.

[16] On 14 February 2019, Datalex announced it planned to cut jobs from its workforce of 500 people (including staff and consultants) in an effort to save up to $10m (€8.8m) a year in costs.

[1][20] The same month, the Irish Times reported that CEO Aidan Brogan had threatened Taggart with legal proceedings after the profit warning in January and told him to limit his contact with clients and employees.

[36] At Datalex's AGM in mid-September, acting-CEO Sean Corkery said that former management had misled the board and suggested that legal action might be taken against them to recover $3.8 million that had been wrongly used to fund shareholder dividends.

[42] In July, it was reported that Dermot Desmond had agreed to provide an extra €10m debt provision, which Datalex could draw on "if required"; the billionaire at that point owned nearly 30% of the company.