CR Corp. and Tidel Technologies Inc. announced an agreement on Feb. 25, 2005 through which NCR will acquire Tidel's ATM business.

NCR will pay $10.2 million for the acquisition and will complete the transaction by the end of Q4 2005.

Tidel faced growing financial troubles since 2001, when its largest and longtime customer, ISO Credit Card Center (CCC), collapsed. According to ATMmarketplace.com, Tidel made 70% of its ATM sales to CCC in 2000 and 2001.

Following the demise of CCC, Tidel reported it lost $26 million, including $18 million in Q3 2001 alone.

Tidel, based in Houston, started out in the ATM business in 1992 as a division of the Southland Corp., which is now 7-Eleven Inc. Tidel developed its products primarily for use in stores and other off-premise locations.

NCR could be hoping that the Tidel line will fill out its own product roster to expand markets and strengthen the company's foothold in an increasingly shaky business.

While the acquisition happens at a time when the volume of ATM usage at installed machines is decreasing because of such issues as market saturation and competition from debit and cash-back POS options, NCR apparently has plans to develop its off-premise business.

At the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) Conference East, held in Miami Feb. 14 - 16, Daniel Palczynski of NCR discussed several initiatives the company has in the works.

He mentioned mobile ATM solutions, including NCR's new "Cash Drop" machines. Deployers place these kiosk-like machines on a temporary basis for events as promising ways to bring ATMs to locations where a cash machine would be the last thing people would expect to find.

Palczynski showed slides of the highest altitude ATM, at 13,200 feet somewhere high in the Himalaya mountain range, and of a solution devised for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece where vans equipped with ATMs were placed and moved strategically to serve cash-strapped customers.