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M&A activity skyrockets this past week across the payments industry with several momentous deal announcements. To kick things off, Global Payments announced their agreement to acquire EVO Payments for $4 billion in cash. Following the closing of this deal, the combined entity will serve more than 4.5 million merchants and over 1,500 financial institutions globally. While also expanding further internationally, this acquisition supports Global Payment’s commitment towards broadening their ISV channel; particularly within the B2B sector. EVO Payments has cultivated relationships with 1,500 technology partners, which will accompany Global Payment’s network of 6,000 partners and allow the company to grow in new and existing market verticals. In addition to this deal, Global Payments is selling their Netspend business to Rêv Worldwide in an all-cash transaction valued at $1 billion. Netspend, which was founded in 1999 by Roy and Bertrand Sosa, is coming back to the Sosa brothers who later also founded Rêv. The combined business will leverage existing assets as well as explore future product development and innovation within the prepaid card market.
In other M&A news, the B2B payments platform Plastiq announced their merger with Colonnade Acquisition Corp. II, a SPAC firm, for an enterprise value of approximately $480 million. The business combination is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.