Global Payments, TSYS Ink $21.5B Deal To Merge

Megadeals everywhere in payments? Global Payments has inked a deal to acquire Total System Services (TSYS) in a $21.5 billion deal.

Bloomberg, citing to people with knowledge of the matter,  reported the all-stock deal will be announced later Tuesday (May 28). It marks the payment industry’s third mega-merger of the year.

Under deal terms, Total System Services shareholders will get 0.8101 Global Payments for each share they own.  Jeff Sloan, the chief executive officer of Global Payments, will be at the head of the merged company. Troy Woods, Total System CEO, will become chairman of the combined company. Global Payments shareholders will end up owning 52 percent of the new company while Total System investors will own the rest.

As has been widely reported, the transaction — rumored in the Memorial Day weekend to be on tap as soon as today (May 28) — is the latest in a wave of consolidation efforts that have tied some of the biggest payment tech players together. Per reports in CNBC, Bank of America is advising Global Payments on the transaction to buy TSYS. The deal would come after FIS‘ announcement to acquire Worldpay for roughly $35 billion. In January, Fiserv said it was acquiring First Data in a $22 billion transaction.

In each of those transactions (and likely in the looming, rumored transaction for TSYS), a theme has emerged. The overarching goal may be to offer “one-stop shops” for any number of devices, software and services for companies that give merchants and banks the ability to offer end consumers a range of (cashless) payment choices.

TSYS has made its mark in merchant-processing, which involves processing transactions for the banks that issue cards. It is also among the largest credit card processors in the U.S., with a footprint in helping banks issue cards and statements to end consumers.

In addition, TSYS has been busy making acquisitions of its own. As detailed in this space a year ago, in the wake of TSYS buying Cayan for $1 billion, Philip McHugh, senior executive vice president and president of TSYS Merchant Solutions, said the merchant services space is rapidly evolving.

At the time, he said, “There are few players of scale that have sewn boarding and servicing together to make them really effective. Those platforms, plus being active in the consolidation of the market, can lead us to an exciting place on integration.”

The Cayan acquisition was aimed at boosting omnichannel solutions. (Cayan is the company behind Genius, a cloud-based platform that can integrate a number of functions spanning payments processing and acceptance.) At present, TSYS’ revenue of $980 million was broken down into 42 percent Issuer Solutions (where accounts on file grew 8.6 percent to 628.2 million), with Merchant Solutions at 35 percent, Consumer Solutions making up the remainder and gross dollar volume growing by 3.8 percent to $10 billion.

Global Payments has a presence in merchant acquiring (existing as the third-largest player in the field). A tie-up may be complementary by combining those two focal points within payments, and both companies have global reach.