Global Payments Inc. struck a trio of deals allowing it to buy rival Worldpay for $24.3 billion, cementing its status as one of the country's largest merchant acquirers.
The company acquired the 45% stake that Fidelity National Information Services Inc. still owned and simultaneously agreed to purchase the 55% stake held by private equity firm GTCR LLC, according to separate statements Thursday. The deal value included $1.55 billion of anticipated tax assets.
At the same time, Global Payments agreed to offload its issuer-solutions business to FIS in a deal with an enterprise value of $13.5 billion.
"The acquisition of Worldpay and divestiture of issuer solutions further sharpen our strategic focus and simplify Global Payments as a pure play merchant solutions business," Global Payments Chief Executive Officer Cameron Bready said in a statement.
The transactions combining Worldpay and Global Payments creates a payments behemoth in an industry that's undergone consolidation in recent years.
The Worldpay business has changed hands many times in recent years. FIS acquired it in 2019 for $41 billion. Just five years later, though, the company
