Visa has agreed to acquire the bank payments provider Earthport for 198 million pounds ($250.6 million U.S.), pending approval from Earthport's shareholders.
Visa International Service Association, a unit of Visa, is offering a price of four times more per Earthport share to consummate the cash deal made Thursday, according to a
Visa declined to provide any other comments regarding the offer. However, during recent earnings reports Visa has cited its interest in the growing cross-border payments segment. The company has had its sights on the London-based Earthport and made an initial offer in November.
Two years ago, Earthport expanded its global
The company was an early entrant in the digital currency market by
A year after the Ripple partnership, Earthport was expanding its use of blockchain's distributed ledger technology for faster payment delivery and a
Earthport, established in 1997, has served banks, money transfer businesses, e-commerce companies and payments aggregators. Its top bank clients included Bank of America, HSBC, Western Union, Xoom, BNP Paribas, American Express, Hyperwallet, Transferwise and Payoneer.
While establishing itself as a lower-cost alternative to traditional payments systems, Earthport's value on the London Stock Exchange secondary market had fallen, according to
In related news this week, China's Ant Financial was reportedly in talks to
