FIS Completes Worldpay Acquisition

Jacksonville, Fla.-based fintech powerhouse FIS, announced closing of its acquisition of UK-based international e-commerce and payments provider Worldpay, creating a global financial services leader for merchants, financial institutions and capital markets.

The notice, which comes days after Fiserv announced completion of its First Data acquisition, stated the combined company will have over $12 billion in pro forma revenue and more than 55,000 employees.

FIS, which serves more than 20,000 clients in over 130 countries; and Worldpay, which processed over 40 billion transactions annually, supporting more than 300 payment types across more than 120 currencies; have complementary solutions and services encompassing financial institution issuer services, network and merchant services.

“This is an exciting day for FIS and Worldpay, and for the industry as a whole,” said FIS chairman, president and CEO Gary Norcross. “This transformative combination significantly enhances the scale, portfolio and global footprint of FIS to help our clients capitalize on growth opportunities at a time of rapid marketplace change.

“I would like to extend a warm welcome to Worldpay employees, clients and investors to the FIS family as we work together to bring the benefits to businesses and communities around the world,” Norcross said. “I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of this company and the innovations and advancements we can bring to advance the way the world pays, banks and invests.”

“The global payments industry is moving at an accelerated speed and it is vital that large providers such as FIS stay ahead,” Rivka Gewirtz Little, research director, Global Payment Strategies at IDC Financial Insights, said in the statement. “The combination of FIS and Worldpay enhances FIS’ overall acquiring and payment offerings, positioning the company to offer best-in-class enterprise banking, payments, capital markets, and global eCommerce capabilities to financial institutions and businesses worldwide.”

Several former Worldpay executives will assume key leadership roles at FIS. Mark Heimbouch, former president and chief operating officer at Worldpay, joins FIS as president of the company’s merchant solutions division. Stephanie Ferris, former CFO at Worldpay, joins FIS as its enterprise-wide COO. Charles Drucker, former executive chairman and CEO at Worldpay, joined the FIS board of directors as vice chairman. Key leaders from Worldpay will also remain with the company.

In March, Myron Schwarcz, EVP at Memphis, Tenn.-based Strategic Resource Management, a full-service consulting firm for credit unions and banks, provided some observations about the potential effects of the new FIS/Worldpay entity.

“Given the timing, it’s a response to the Fiserv/First Data acquisition. Certainly FIS’ primary competitor significantly beefed up payment processing capabilities, also merchant processing business, which by all accounts has higher margins and is growing faster,” Schwarcz said. “They do debit card and credit card processing for community banks and credit unions, but that’s a relatively small component of the overall Worldpay offering and revenue.”