Vantiv Inc.’s $11 billion acquisition of British-based Worldpay Group sets up an opportunity for the company to take integrated electronic payments born and developed in Durango globally.
Matt Taylor, who leads Vantiv’s Durango office and will now serve as Worldpay’s executive vice president for global integrated payments and small business e-commerce, was among the Vantiv executives who capped the deal Tuesday for the newly merged international electronic-payment processing firm by ringing the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange.
Vantiv has taken on the name Worldpay Inc. and will trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “WP.”
“This combination is an exciting opportunity to take integrated payments, which was born and developed in Durango by Mercury and taken national when Mercury was acquired by Vantiv, to take it globally,” Taylor said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
He said Worldpay’s 425 employees in Durango will continue their development of integrated payments, combining point-of-sale transactions with payments, and take that technology worldwide.
Taylor said none of the combined Worldpay Inc. executives would comment on the possibility of layoffs either immediately or down the road. However, he added, “All I can tell you is we’re hiring in Durango right now.”
Taylor noted many in Durango reacted in dismay concerning the possibility of layoffs when Mercury was first acquired by a private equity firm in 2010, and the same reaction was seen in 2014, when Mercury was acquired by Vantiv.
“This acquisition is like all the others – it is focused on growth,” he said. “The idea is to take what we do in Durango and expand it globally.”
Commenting on the acquisition, Roger Zalneraitis, executive director of the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance, said, “It is always better to be the shark than the minnow.”
Worldpay will remain based in the Cincinnati suburb of Symmes Township, currently the location of Vantiv’s headquarters.
The company’s international headquarters will be in London, where Worldpay was based.
Taylor said the combination likely means more travel for Durango-based employees, perhaps working with colleagues in the international operation in London.
“It will offer an opportunity to work with the London headquarters on expanding internationally, and it will offer employees in London an opportunity to come here as well. This is a great growth opportunity for all our employees,” he said.
The combined Worldpay processes more than 40 billion transactions a year in 146 countries. Vantiv had already been the U.S.’s largest merchant acquirer, a processor of credit, debit and gift card transactions, and PIN debit acquirer, processing 25 billion transactions and almost $1 trillion in sales volume annually.
The combined companies would have ranked 287th on the 2017 Fortune 500 list had the merger been completed then. Vantiv generated revenue of $3.6 billion in 2016, while Worldpay’s revenue totaled $6.3 billion when converted from British pounds to dollars at the current rate.
The cutoff for last year’s Fortune 500 list was at $5.1 billion, and Vantiv ranked 637th.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
On the Net
Video of Worldpay ringing the New York Stock Exchange closing bell on Tuesday:
http://bit.ly/2Da3KaE
