ACI Goes X-Border With PAY.ON Acquisition

The electronic payments and banking solutions company ACI Worldwide is buying eCommerce player PAY.ON in a deal worth roughly $200 million in cash and stock, the two companies said on Wednesday (Nov. 4).

In a release, ACI said it is buying the firm in a deal that would bolster exposure to alternative payments methods and card acquirers across more than 160 countries. The global presence helps facilitate cross-border business, with an emphasis on omnichannel options. The ACI merchant base itself will be able to grow international sales, with an attendant decrease in costs.

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Key synergies would come through the addition of the PAY.ON Software-as-a-Service eCommerce gateway, which bolsters the ACI UP Retailer Payments platform.

As the two companies noted in their release, the global eCommerce market is one that will grow at as much as 17 percent annually through the next four years — and the need for cross-border payments is growing, too. The cross-border subset of eCommerce is slated to grow by as much as 18 percent annually through 2019. Late this past summer, ACI highlighted, in an interview with PYMNTS, the implications of ominchannel and fraud convergence.

In a statement that accompanied the release, Phil Heasley, chief executive officer of ACI, noted that “PAY.ON brings world-class eCommerce payment and card-not-present (CNP) capabilities to ACI. Its SaaS-based business model, coupled with its strength in alternative payments and cross-border capabilities, allow us to expand our eCommerce platform broadly into new geographic regions. Our acquisition of ReD in 2014 strengthened our position as a market leader in the CNP payments risk management market, and this acquisition further solidifies our position as a leading omnichannel payments provider.”

In terms of financial implications, ACI said the impact of the PAY.ON acquisition would be minimal to both the ACI top and bottom lines through the remainder of fiscal 2015.

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