Global Payments shares plunge 17% after company announces $24 billion Worldpay deal

Global Payments shares plunge 17% after company announces  billion Worldpay deal


The Global Payments Company logo seen displayed on a smartphone.

Igor Golovniov | LightRocket | Getty Images

Global Payments shares tumbled 17% on Thursday after the company said it’s buying Worldpay for more than $24 billion while simultaneously selling its Issuer Solutions business to Fidelity National Information Services.

The company said that in acquiring Worldpay, which FIS had purchased in 2019 before later selling a majority stake, it’s expanding its reach and will be able to serve over 6 million customers across more than 175 countries, enabling $3.7 trillion in annual payment volume.

In selling its Issuer Solutions unit to FIS for $13.5 billion, Global Payments is divesting a unit for back-end financial processing that’s long been viewed as a stable provider of growth. In the end, Global Payments is going bigger in providing payments services to merchants, while FIS is focusing on issuer processing.

FIS bought Worldpay for about $35 billion in 2019 and sold most of its stake last year to GTCR.

Global Payments said on Thursday that it obtained committed bridge financing and plans to issue $7.7 billion of debt “to replace the bridge commitment and refinance Worldpay’s outstanding debt.”

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

Global Payments CEO Cameron Bready called it a “defining day,” and said the transaction gives the company “significantly expanded capabilities, extensive scale, greater market access and an enhanced financial profile.”

But Wall Street was less enthusiastic. While the acquisition gives Global Payments a larger footprint in payment processing, analysts at Mizuho described it as a strategic step backward.

Mizuho reiterated its neutral rating on the stock, warning that “the business could be seeing more meaningful margin pressure than investors acknowledge.” The analysts wrote that FIS won the trade, getting the “crown jewel” with Global Payments getting “more of the same.”

FIS shares rose more than 8% on Thursday.

Both deals are expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approval.

WATCH: Global Payments to buy Worldpay

Faber Report: Global Payments to buy Worldpay for $22.7B



Source

Tesla faces U.S. auto safety probe after reports FSD ran red lights, caused collisions
Technology

Tesla faces U.S. auto safety probe after reports FSD ran red lights, caused collisions

The tablet of the new Tesla Model 3. Matteo Della Torre | Nurphoto | Getty Images Tesla is facing a federal investigation into possible safety defects with FSD, its partially automated driving system that is also known as Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Media, vehicle owner and other incident reports to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration […]

Read More
Trump meets with Jared Isaacman about top NASA job after pulling nomination
Technology

Trump meets with Jared Isaacman about top NASA job after pulling nomination

Commander Jared Isaacman of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, speaks at a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 19, 2024.  Joe Skipper | Reuters President Donald Trump has met with Jared Isaacman to discuss another nomination to lead NASA, a source familiar with the talks confirmed […]

Read More
Talent agency CAA slams OpenAI’s Sora for posing ‘significant risk’ to its clients
Technology

Talent agency CAA slams OpenAI’s Sora for posing ‘significant risk’ to its clients

An illustration photo shows Sora 2 logo on a smartphone. Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images The Creative Artists Agency on Thursday slammed OpenAI’s new video creation app Sora for posing “significant risks” to their clients and intellectual property. The talent agency, which represents artists including Doja Cat, Scarlett Johanson, and Tom Hanks, questioned […]

Read More