National Data Buys POS Servicing Firm

National Data Corp. and its Global Payment Systems subsidiary have acquired Merchant Services USA, a Winston-Salem, N.C., company that provides customer service for point of sale equipment manufacturers, transaction processors, and health-care electronic data interchange companies 24 hours a day.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Merchant Services will be operated through Global, a transaction processing venture that National Data formed last year with MasterCard International, which owns a 6.5% stake.

In a written statement, David K. Hunt, Global's president and chief executive officer, said Merchant Services is an important addition to Global's end-to-end transaction processing network.

Among the services Merchant Services will provide are terminal deployment and replacement.

"This acquisition complements our existing terminal management services offering, and it enhances our customer service support," said David Scott, a spokesman for National Data in Atlanta, which is also Global's base. National Data has customer service operations in St. Louis and Atlanta.

"This is a perfect fit," Mr. Scott added.

National Data, also active in the health-care information business, is the No. 5 merchant-acquirer in the U.S. card business. Last year, it processed $18.7 billion for 91,000 merchants, according to The Nilson Report, Oxnard, Calif.