Digital Transactions
The big processor Global Payments Inc. announced early Tuesday it will acquire Zego Inc., a payments and technology provider for managers of residential real estate, in a deal valued at approximately $830 million. The company also announced an agreement to buy the PayOne acquiring business in Austria belonging to the French processor Worldline S.A. The two deals together will total about $1 billion, company officials said.
Jeff Sloan, Global Payments’ chief executive, told equity analysts Tuesday the Zego deal should close later this quarter, while the PayOne acquisition will close in the second half of the year. “With Zego, we will enter one of the most attractive vertical markets in the world, real estate,” Sloan said.
Kansas City, Mo.-based Zego processes $30 billion in payments annually for 7,300 clients managing 11 million residential units. The PayOne acquisition comes shortly after Worldline’s massive $8.6-billion acquisition of Ingenico Group S.A., a French maker of payment terminals and other transaction technology. “We initiated a greenfield acquiring business in Austria 18 months ago. The PayOne acquisition lets us grow that faster,” said Global Payments president Cameron Bready during the call with analysts.
