ACI Worldwide has closed the acquisition of Western Union’s US bill pay business, Speedpay, for $750m in an all-cash deal.
Image: ACI Payment Systems, Waltham Massachusetts. Photo: Courtesy of John Phelan/Wikipedia.org.
The Speedpay acquisition will enable ACI Worldwide to expand into several segments, including consumer finance, insurance, healthcare, higher education, utilities, government and mortgage.
With the deal now closed, Speedpay and ACI’s UP Bill Payment platforms will be integrated to become a unified bill payment platform.
ACI Worldwide expects the acquisition to contribute between $215m and $220m in revenue and between $50m and $55m in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to the remainder of this year.
ACI Worldwide president and CEO Phil Heasley said: “The acquisition marks an exciting new era in bill pay. The combination of Speedpay and ACI brings together an incredibly strong team of bill pay experts and a powerful next-generation platform.
“As we join forces, we are focused on driving innovation and revolutionizing bill pay for our thousands of customers.
“Strategically moving forward, this acquisition also accelerates the delivery of ACI’s ‘Any Payment, Every Possibility’ vision to serve the real-time digital payments needs of merchants, corporates and billers.”
In conjunction with Speedpay acquisition, ACI Worldwide unveiled new mobile wallet payment and loyalty capabilities that enable users to view bills from their Apple Wallet or Google Pay and make payments from their smartphones.
ACI Worldwide said that the new functionality is based on its acquisition of Western Union’s Walletron business, which is used by more than six million consumers in 100 countries.
Walletron offers patented mobile wallet technology for iOS through Apple Wallet and for Android through Google Pay. It manages more than 12 billion bills through its network of billing and payment partners.
In October 2018, ACI Worldwide and Walletron partnered to support ACI’s clients in enhancing their customer experience by letting the customers view and pay bills quickly from the mobile wallet app.
ACI Worldwide executive vice president Sanjay Gupta said: “Today’s consumers expect a bill pay experience that is quick, easy and digitized, and with billing and payment among an organization’s most frequent and most important touchpoints, customer experience is paramount.
“As more consumers utilize mobile devices to view and pay bills, organizations must be able to present bills in a mobile-friendly way.
“The combination of ACI’s bill payments platform and Walletron’s next-generation mobile wallet billing technology delivers consumers a digital bill pay experience unmatched in the industry. We are excited to welcome the Walletron team as we shape the future of bill pay.”