Mercury Payment Systems Inc. accepted a $1.65 billion purchase offer from Cincinnati-based payments processor Vantiv Inc. yesterday. With the deal Vantiv will expand its online commerce business into Mercury Payment Systems’ network.
“The emergence of integrated payment technology at the point-of-sale delivers a differentiated merchant experience and creates a highly-efficient, cloud-based delivery model for customer acquisition and retention,” said Charles Drucker, president and chief executive officer of Vantiv in a released statement. “By combining Mercury’s distribution network and innovative solutions with Vantiv’s technology platform and products, we are developing a payments eco-system that allows us to serve these clients in new and exciting ways. Bringing the companies together will dramatically enhance our distribution and technology capabilities to serve a number of large and growing industry verticals.”
Mercury’s network includes 3,000 point-of-sale software developers and dealers who serve the small and medium size business marketplace through out the U.S. and Canada.
“Vantiv and Mercury are aligned in our desire to create integrated software solutions that fulfill the specialized needs of merchants,” said Matt Taylor, chief executive officer of Mercury. “Software developers and dealers are helping to lead the way for the future of payments, and combining with Vantiv puts us in a strong competitive position to jointly offer a broader set of value-added products and services to our partners and merchants.”
The deal will likely close at the end of the quarter, with CEO Taylor and Mercury’s management team will remain with the company, which will maintain its locations in Colorado.
The news of the acquisition puts to bed speculation about a possible Mercury IPO later this year. The company had $237 million in revenue in 2013, a 17 percent jump from a year earlier.
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