Global Payments To Buy Real Estate Tech Firm Zego For $830 Million

Atlanta-based Global Payments has inked a deal to acquire Zego, which offers a property management software platform.

“We are delighted to expand our software and digital commerce portfolio with the addition of Zego, a real estate technology company that modernizes the resident experience,” Global Payments President and Chief Operating Officer Cameron Bready said in a Tuesday (May 4) press release. “This acquisition aligns perfectly with Global Payments’ strategy,” he said, given that, in real estate, “digital commerce and omnichannel trends are rapidly accelerating.”

Under the terms of the all-cash deal, Global Payments will acquire Zego at an “effective purchase price” of about $830 million (the deal is valued at $925 million, inclusive of a tax asset). Global Payments said it would finance the acquisition with its “existing credit facility and cash on hand.”

The agreement, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2021.

The release said that Zego has over 7,000 property management customers responsible for more than 11 million residential units in the United States. Through its payments offering, Zego facilitates about $30 billion in payments annually.

Zego’s “comprehensive” platform deals with a wide range of property management situations — from leasing, to both one-time and recurring payments, utilities management, resident communications and renewals.

Global Payments said its technologies and services help its customers to operate their businesses across a variety of channels around the world. With nearly 24,000 employees worldwide, Global Payments is a member of the S&P 500 “with worldwide reach spanning over 100 countries.”

In general, new technologies are taking the real estate industry by storm. That includes the home-buying aspect, which was ripe for disruption. The sector had not changed very much in the last 100 years or so.

What the pandemic did was create the space to make changes, HomeLight CEO Drew Uher told PYMNTS. For example, nowadays, paperwork can be done electronically. During the pandemic, even tightly regulated jurisdictions like California loosened requirements that necessitated physicality where it wasn’t really necessary.