Payment Alliance Buys WRG

Payment Alliance International has acquired WRG Services Inc.

Donna Embry, a senior vice president with Payment Alliance, said the purchase, announced Monday, "complements one of our core businesses in the ATM market. It allows us to expand our market-partner presence within the distribution channel and grow our base of ATMs out there."

The Louisville company gains WRG's more than 300 distributor relationships and a portfolio of more than 12,000 deployed automated teller machines in the U.S. The price was not disclosed.

Embry said Payment Alliance plans to slowly integrate WRG's operations and will retain most of the Willoughby, Ohio, ATM independent sales organization's employees. "They have brand recognition out there, and we don't want to lose the momentum they had," she said.

Observers said the deal reflects a trend in the ATM market.

"The ATM ISO market in the U.S. is quite saturated and has been consolidating over the last few years," said Gil B. Luria, vice president of equity research and transaction processors at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.

"I would see this as another step in that consolidation process."

In January, Payment Alliance acquired the merchant processing operations of Comdata Processing Systems.

Embry said then that the Comdata business would help her company expand its product line to include remote deposit, and to expand the geographic reach of its ATM services.

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