Capital One weighs acquisition of Discover

Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

Capital One Financial Corp. is exploring a potential acquisition of credit-card lender Discover Financial Services in a major move that would rank as its largest-ever deal, people with knowledge of the matter said. 

McLean, Virginia-based Capital One is working with advisers and has been holding talks with Discover about a deal, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. If it's able to reach an agreement, an announcement may come as soon as this week, according to the people. 

Shares of Discover have fallen about 2% this year, valuing the Riverwoods, Illinois-based company at $27.6 billion. Capital One has a market capitalization of about $52.2 billion.

A purchase of Discover could rank as one of the largest acquisitions globally this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The top deal so far has been Synopsys Inc.'s roughly $34 billion acquisition of software developer Ansys Inc. announced in January. 

Discover said in January that its fourth-quarter profit dropped 62% as it continued to grapple with the fallout from compliance and risk-management lapses that led to the resignation of its chief executive officer. The company halted buybacks last year and has been seeking a buyer for its student-loan business. 

Deliberations are ongoing, and there's no certainty they will lead to a transaction. Representatives for Capital One and Discover didn't immediately respond to requests for comment during a public holiday. 

Capital One has been focused on luring premium customers into its network. It has said such customers — known as "transactors" in industry parlance because they're often heavy spenders but not as reliant on borrowing — are valuable over the long term because they are less likely to switch brands.

It agreed to buy the digital concierge service Velocity Black last year, pushing deeper into premium credit cards and other luxury markets dominated by American Express Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.