Bottomline Technologies Exploring Possible Sale

Payment and invoice management platform Bottomline Technologies Inc. is looking into a potential sale and is working with Deutsche Bank AG on its options, people with knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg on Thursday (Dec. 9).

Bottomline has recently been courted by private equity firms, the sources said. The company hasn’t made any financial decisions about its future and could still remain independent after exploring its options.

Bottomline added three new board members in October as part of an agreement with shareholders Clearfield Capital Management and Sachem Head Capital Management, and formed a committee to evaluate and make recommendations on its market position and strategy.

Related news: Bottomline Snaps up Bora Payments to Drive STP for Paymode-X

In November, Bottomline closed a $15 million cash deal to acquire Bora Payment Systems, part of the company’s move to use straight-through processing (STP) for improved efficiency when accepting virtual cards for vendors using Bottomline’s Paymode-X electronic payment network.

Most virtual card payments are manually processed and sent across an encrypted email server or by accessing a secure portal. Virtual card payments processed using STP are sent to the vendor’s bank account. STP also captures remittance data.

Since acquiring Bora, Bottomline has offered new bank channel relationships and capabilities to Paymode-X that will upgrade its virtual card program.

Also see: Bottomline Unveils Bank Payments Tracking Service via Swift API

In August, Bottomline announced a new application programming interface (API)-based payments tracking service that will integrate SWIFT gpi data, which is captured on behalf of Bottomline clients and integrated into their payments workflow to simplify the API access points.

The service pairs Bottomline with SWIFT’s Platform Partnership Program, which enables third-party providers to offer API connectivity benefits to their banking customers.

In August, Bottomline debuted its Watchlist Screening program, which aims to limit false positives. The software can be integrated with other payments tools and can also screen transactions against official sanction lists, which are published by international regulatory bodies.