JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Almost 40 million shares of Fidelity National Information Services changed hands Thursday as the price surged 10% amid reports the provider of back-office services for credit unions and banks was being pursed by private equity funds the Blackstone Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners and TPG Capital.
The shares closed Friday at $28.76, up 9% for the week after whipsawing Thursday and Friday on talks the group was preparing a takeover offer of as much as $10 billion.
A takeover would mark of the highlight of dealmaker William Foley’s career, which has included the creation of Fidelity National Title, then its subsidiary Fidelity National Information, and finally the spin-off of the two into separately traded companies in 2007. The surviving Fidelity National Information, known as FIS, represents the remnants of former credit union vendors such as Certegy, Metavante, Aurum Technology, ALLTEL Information Services, VISTA Information Solutions, Sanchez Computer Associates and InterCept.
A deal would mark the return of Thomas H. Lee Partners and TPG Capital to the Fidelity machinations. The two private equity giants tried but failed to acquire the company in 2004, settling for a 25% stake in exchange for a $500 million investment. While TPG sold its holdings, Thomas H. Lee Partners remains a big investor.
It also could signal the return of the takeover boom to the credit union market that was severely reshaped in recent years by acquisitions of First Data Corp., Open Solutions Inc., John H. Harland Co., CheckFree, eFunds and others.
Fidelity National is a leading provider of technology to credit unions and banks, and its services and software handle credit card transactions, loan processing and back-office systems. The company has 31,000 employees and reported $105.9 million in net income last year on nearly $3.8 billion in revenue.
