Payment Alliance International has acquired the ATM-processing business of WRG Services Inc., a Willoughby, Ohio-based ATM independent sales organization, Louisville, Ky.-based Payment Alliance announced Monday.
The acquisition “compliments one of our core businesses in the ATM market,” says Donna Embry, Payment Alliance senior vice president. “It allows us to expand our market partner presence within the distribution channel and grow our base of ATMs out there. It was a good fit,” she says.
The company gains WRG’s more than 300 distributor relationships and a portfolio of more than 12,000 deployed ATMs in the United States. The acquisition grows Payment Alliance’s base to more than 45,000 ATM locations, according to the merchant-services provider.
The ISO will transition WRG Services’ business to Payment Alliance “over time,” says Embry. “They have brand recognition out there, and we don’t want to lose the momentum they had,” she says.
Payment Alliance intends to retain the majority of WRB Services’ employees, says Embry.
“The ATM ISO market in the U.S. is quite saturated and has been consolidating over the last few years,” says Gil B. Luria, vice president of equity research and transaction processors at Los Angeles-based Wedbush Morgan Securities. “I would see this as another step in that consolidation process.”
A WRG Services representative did not immediately return requests for comment.
Payment Alliance’s acquisition of WRG Services comes closely on the heels of the ISO’s acquisition of Comdata Processing Systems’ merchant-processing business (see story). http://www.paymentssource.com/news/payment-alliance-international-comdata-processing-acquires-3000404-1.html
