Western Union Co. is seeking to acquire rival money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.
Western Union recently made a takeover offer for MoneyGram, said the person, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. No final decision has been made and Western Union could opt to not proceed with a potential deal, the person said.
Representatives for Western Union and MoneyGram declined to comment.
A transaction would bring together two of the largest U.S. providers of money transfer services. The business has been in decline as more people rely on online payments to move money around the world. While MoneyGram has aggressively grown digital transactions, they made up just 18% of its money transfers in the first quarter, the company
Ant Financial Services Group, the Chinese financial services conglomerate, agreed to acquire MoneyGram in 2017 but abandoned the deal after push back from U.S. national security regulators.
MoneyGram rose as high as 74% in late trading Monday. The stock closed up 6.2% to $2.59, giving the company a market value of about $164 million. It also has about $878 million of debt.
Western Union rose 3.5% to close at $20.71, giving it a market value of about $8.5 billion.
