Blackhawk Network Buys GiftCards.com

Prepaid card and payments firm Blackhawk Network said on Wednesday (Jan. 6) that it has bought GiftCards.com. The latter company sells digital and physical prepaid cards through the site and also operates OmniCard, which sells reward and prepaid solutions for business clients. The deal is expected to add to the Blackhawk eCommerce operations upon closing.

GiftCards.com also offers GiftLocal, which features an open network for local merchants and a “virtual Visa gift card” that can be transmitted via a mobile app.

Under the terms of the deal, as denoted in a press release, Blackhawk bought the ownership stake of Omni Prepaid from Wolfe, LLC, a transaction that transferred ownership of GiftCards.com. The total consideration was $120 million, through both cash and debt, tapped from a credit facility already in place. The deal is expected to be accretive to the bottom line in fiscal 2016.

[bctt tweet=”The total consideration was $120 million, through both cash and debt, tapped from a credit facility already in place.”]

In a statement that accompanied the announcement of Blackhawk’s strategic move, Talbott Roche, Blackhawk’s president, said of his firm: “We’re excited to add another gift card website to our roster; with GiftCards.com often ranking high in search engine results, this acquisition is expected to enhance Blackhawk’s leadership in the gift card eCommerce market. By merging our current eCommerce offerings and the distinctive assets offered by GiftCards.com, we’ll be able to deliver the broadest selection of gift cards to current and future customers, both individual consumers and corporate buyers.”

Blackhawk itself became a publicly traded company in late summer 2014 after having been spun out from Safeway after the company distributed all of its Class B shares to Safeway shareholders. The supermarket giant held about 72 percent of the prepaid card firm’s Class B stock prior to the spinoff and distribution of shares to holders.