Payments Dive
For the payments industry, an October surge in acquisitions may be the start of a yearend upswing in activity.
Payments consulting firm The Strawhecker Group counted nine deals in the industry so far this month, a spokesperson for TSG said, making October the second most active month for mergers and acquisitions this year.
And TSG Director Sam Wares said he’s hearing a lot of chatter about upcoming deals. “I’m at a payments conference, Money20/20, right now, and there are so many companies that are here walking the floor to find a deal,” Wares said during a Tuesday interview this week.
Wares expects the October uptick to continue through the end of 2023, with payments companies opening up their wallets and shopping for acquisitions again this quarter.
What kind of deals are happening?
In an emailed M&A report, TSG said payments companies have focused on purchases of independent sales organizations this month. ISOs accounted for four of the nine deals in October. Why ISOs? These purchases enable companies to “expand their geographic presence, obtain new technology or solutions” and “grow their customer bases,” the note said.
One ISO deal was payments technology provider Stax’s purchase of payments processing software provider Atlantic-Pacific Processing Systems, according to TSG.
Deals in other categories included payment processor Shift4 Payments purchasing a sports and entertainment business unit from SpotOn for $100 million; payment processor Fiserv’s acquiring