Metavante Prepares for Spin-Off

MILWAUKEE – Metavante Corp., which is preparing to go public in a spin-off from Marshall & Ilsley, said yesterday it hired Timothy Oliver, a 39-year-old treasurer at nearby Rockwell Automation, as its new chief financial officer. Oliver will report directly to Frank Martire, the old Fiserv executive who will be Metavante’s CEO. Metavante is a conglomerate of financial service companies acquired over the last three years by M&I, including the NYCE electronic payments network, the Endpoint Exchange electronic check clearing network, and several others. It is one of several payments systems being brought to the market over the next few months, including yesterday’s debut of Discover Financial Services, the parent of Pulse EFT, and Visa USA, which is going public in an IPO. The Metavante deal is a so-called sponsored spin-off, in which private equity fund Warburg Pincus has already acquired a 25% stake in the spun-off Metavante, in exchange for an investment of $625 million.