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Continuing with strong movement in the third quarter, M&A activity within the merchant acquiring industry remained lively this week with American Express’s acquisition of Kabbage and Wirecard’s global assets beginning to sell to interested third-parties. First off, American Express made their announcement of their intent to acquire online lending provider, Kabbage. While terms of the agreement were not disclosed, it is suspected that the deal was valued at around $850 million. With this new acquisition, American Express plans to provide a broader set of cash flow management tools and working capital offerings to their U.S. customers. The acquisition is expected to close later this year.
In other news, Wirecard’s global operating assets are picking up interest from potential buyers following the company’s filing for insolvency a few months earlier. An agreement for the sale of Wirecard Brazil has been made by a subsidiary of PagSeuro Digital, a leading payments technology company based in Brazil. In addition, a preliminary agreement to sell off Wirecard Card Solutions in the United Kingdom to Railsbank Technology is currently underway. Other global operating assets of Wirecard are suspected to be sold off in the coming months.