Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Ingenico Group SA, a leading provider of point of sale technology, is being acquired by rival Worldline SA. The combination of the two French technology firms is set to create one of the largest payment services providers in Europe. The transaction, valued at $8.6 billion, has been approved by both companies' boards of directors, and pending regulatory approvals is expected to close in July.
News of the combination follows a spate of mega-mergers involving payments companies, including Fiserv's acquisition of First Data Corp., Fidelity National Information Services' acquisition of Worldpay, and the combination of Global Payments and TSYS, all in 2019.
It also follows a number of challenging years for Ingenico, which began as a POS hardware company but has been expanding its product footprint to include software and payment processing services for acquirers and merchants. In late 2018, Philippe Lazare was fired by Ingenico's board of directors after 11 years as company CEO.
Worldline was spun off by the French computer services company, Atos, in an initial public offering in 2014. Following the acquisition of Ingenico, Worldline is expected to have a market value of about 19 billion Euros (or $20.9 billion).
"The combination of Worldline and Ingenico offers a unique opportunity to create the undisputed European champion in payments on par with the largest international players," Bernard Bourigeaud, Ingenico's chairman, said in a statement. "This transaction comes at the time of accelerating consolidation of the industry and I am convinced that the joined forces of both leaders will deeply transform the industry." Prior to joining Ingenico in 2018 Bouriguard led Atos.
Dr Michael Stollarz, CEO of DSV Group and a member of the Ingenico board, characterized the acquisition as an "advantageous development for all parties involved."
Headquartered in Paris, Ingenico lays claim to being the top provider of payment terminals, with over 30 million devices installed worldwide, giving it an estimated 37 percent of the global POS terminal market. It also provides terminals and payment processing solutions to more than 550,000 merchants, primarily in Europe.
"[T]oday is a great day for Worldline and for Ingenico, and more widely for our Payment industry: Together we create the European World-Class leader in digital payments," said Gilles Grapinet, Worldline's chairman and CEO. Grapinet will serve as CEO and Bourigeaud will be a non-executive chairman of the board at the new Worldline upon closing of the deal.
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