Blackstone Said To Be In The Hunt For NCR

There’s no official confirmation, but a new report from the New York Post is claiming that Blackstone Group has plans to join the bidding for the ATM maker NCR, which has allegedly opened back up auction talks.

This comes after NCR called off its investor day last week (Sept. 10), which the Post reported sparked more rumors about the possibility of a sale. Two unnamed sources confirmed these details to the publication.

Rumors about NCR have flooded the investment publication headlines for months, and a dealReporter column last week also got the rumor mill rolling again after NCR rose 7.1 percent following the news that it was calling off its investor day. One unnamed source said that NCR “has already signed a deal with a mystery buyer who has not yet lined up financing.”

Reports also indicated that private equity firm Thoma Bravo is no longer in the running to buy NCR, which was initially reported on back in late July. The firm was reportedly looking to buy NCR for $31 a share, but the company wanted $35. The unnamed sources said the latest re-opening of the auction will come with a lower asking price.

Blackstone denied comment to the Post, and NCR did not return calls.

NCR has been embarking on a number of initiatives to diversify away from its traditional, ATM-based product lines, and that includes a POS focus. In May it was launching NCR-owned Alaric’s latest version of Authentic, a transaction processing software, which can carry out more than 10,000 transactions per second. In July, it announced that the Dunkin’ Donuts chain branched into Brazil using NCR’s Aloha POS software, with an eye on expediting orders, transactions and efficiency.

In the last year, NCR stock has fallen 11 percent and is trading below where it was 10 years ago. The firm, in the recent past, has sought to diversify away from its traditional product line — something Marcato Capital, an NCR shareholder, has said explicitly they would like to see more of though M&A activity.

If a sale does manage to go through, it might feasibly end up as the largest leveraged buyout of 2015.

[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_single_image image=”148412″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d” border_color=”grey” img_link_large=”” img_link_target=”_blank” css_animation=”left-to-right” img_size=”full” link=”http://www.pymnts.com/whats-hot-today/”][vc_column_text css_animation=””]

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][/vc_column][/vc_row]