Global, FIS, trade places

Global Payments and Fidelity Information Services just disclosed a set of agreements that have the effect of swapping out business specialties. Specifically, Global is divesting its Issuer Solutions business, selling it to FIS for $13.5 billion, and it is acquiring Worldpay from GTCR and FIS for a net purchase price of $22.7 billion, or a total value of $24.25 billion, including $1.55 billion of anticipated tax assets.

"This reflects a 12.3x adjusted EBITDA multiple for issuer solutions and 8.5x adjusted EBITDA multiple for Worldpay on net basis inclusive of run-rate synergies," Global said in a press release.

The proposed divestiture of Issuer Solutions and acquisition of Worldpay will are expected to occur simultaneously, in the second half 2026.

Complementary services

Global and Worldpay provide highly complementary payments, software and commerce enablement solutions to merchants and partners worldwide. On a combined basis, Global will now have an extensive worldwide reach and scale, serving more than 6 million customers, and enabling 94 billion transactions and $3.7 trillion in volume across more than 175 countries.

Global purchased Worldpay for about $35 billion in 2019 and sold a minority stake to the private equity firm GTCR in 2024.

"The acquisition of Worldpay and divestiture of Issuer Solutions further sharpen our strategic focus and simplify Global Payments as a pure play merchant solutions business with significantly expanded capabilities, extensive scale, greater market access and an enhanced financial profile," said Cameron Bready, Worldpay CEO.

"This transaction," he added, "provides us with one of the world's most feature rich platforms to support ecommerce and enterprise customers across key high growth geographies and verticals, while also enhancing our integrated and embedded capabilities to deliver seamless solutions to software and platform providers worldwide."

"We are excited to enter this next phase of Worldpay's evolution by uniting with Global Payments to create something special in the payments industry," said Charles Drucker, Worldpay CEO.

Drucker added that small and midsize businesses will see the most benefit. "The combination of Global Payments and Worldpay brings together two strong teams with similar histories," he said. "I am thrilled about the new opportunities this transaction brings for both our businesses and team members worldwide."

Expanding product suite

Global's Issuer Solutions unit is a global market leader in credit card processing, with clients spanning 75 countries. The business processes more than 40 billion transactions annually and maintains partnerships with more than 170 financial institutions and corporations.

"The acquisition of Issuer Solutions is a strategic and accretive transaction that will expand FIS' payment product suite and deepen our relationships with financial institutions and corporate clients," said Stephanie Ferris, CEO and president of FIS. "Issuer Solutions' globally scaled credit processing capabilities are highly complementary to FIS' established debit processing capabilities, [and will strengthen] our broader banking and capital markets offering."

Ferris described the deal as monetizing FIS' Worldpay stake at "an attractive valuation" that will generate "a growing stream of recurring high-margin revenue and cash flows."

FIS said it will fund the acquisition of Worldpay's issuer business through a combination of $8 billion of new debt and the value from the sale of its minority stake in Worldpay.

Mixed market reaction

The deal triggered a mixed reaction in the jittery stock market. Global's shares tumbled 17 percent after the deal was announced on April 17, 2025. FIS shares rose 8 percent.

CNBC interviews with analysts described it as a strategic step backward. In selling its issuer solutions unit to FIS, "Global Payments is divesting a unit for back-end financial processing that has long been viewed as a stable provider of growth," CNBC noted.

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