The Green Sheet received the following letter from Ken Boody, CEO of The Horizon Group.
As you may have heard, the assets and business of The Horizon Group have been recently acquired by Hypercom Corporation. We believe this is in the best interests of you, our customers, for the following reasons:
ï Hypercom has the financial resources to allow Horizon to continue to invest in the infrastructure necessary to support the growing requirements of your organizations;
ï Hypercom has stated publicly and privately that Horizon will be operated at an arms-length relationship. We will retain our own corporate identity, our own management team, and our existing trained and experienced staff;
ï Horizonís services can now be expanded through the placement of a Hypercom Repair Facility at Horizon in St. Louis, allowing us to provide a higher level of service in repairing and refurbishing Hypercom equipment.
Why did Hypercom buy Horizon? Quite simply, it was done at the request of its customers. Virtually every customer has a broad array of terminal devices from many manufacturers installed on their networks. As with most manufacturers, Hypercom is best suited to service only products manufactured by Hypercom. But Hypercom recognizes that acquirers want "one-stop-shopping" for all of their terminal products, including the provision of such services as HelpDesk, deployment, repair, refurbishment, merchant training, etc. This is a core competency of The Horizon Group. In acquiring Horizon, Hypercom can now react to the demands of its customers in delivering these and other services for a broad array of terminal platforms.
Another part of Horizonís business is the sale and distribution of many manufacturersí products to banks, Independent Service Organizations and other resellers. Regrettably, VeriFone has made a business decision to discontinue selling new products and parts to Horizon, despite our assurances that Horizon would continue to remain "vendor neutral." While we are hopeful that VeriFone will reconsider its decision, Horizon is in a position to continue to provide VeriFone products to our customers. We have a large inventory of new and refurbished VeriFone products, and have access to additional products through other distribution channels. Soóbusiness as usual.
How can you help? Most of our customers choose to purchase equipment from The Horizon Group due to our reputation for providing the highest quality service in the industry. In discontinuing the sale of VeriFone products to Hypercom, several options remain. Horizon has the ability to continue to sell you new and refurbished VeriFone equipment for the foreseeable future. And Horizon can offer you other solutionsófrom Hypercom, Nurit, an other manufacturers in lieu of VeriFone equipment. In addition, we can also offer you the superior VRP2000 printer to meet the current lack of availability of VeriFone P250 printers. In the absence of a change in VeriFoneís position, we will be aggressive in these tactics so that we can continue to offer the highest levels of service to our customers. If you believe that VeriFone should continue to sell products to Horizon to meet your needs, I implore you to contact your VeriFone sales representative and sales management and express your views as vigorously as possible. In the absence of a groundswell from our existing loyal customers, nothing will change from VeriFoneís current position.
Lastly, you can be assured that The Horizon Group will continue to provide you the high level of service and support you have enjoyed in the past. We appreciate your business, your confidence in our ability to meet your needs, and your continued support.
Sincerely,
The Horizon Group
A Hypercom Company
