- Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and CVC Capital Partners teamed up today to make a £2.9B ($3.7B) preliminary offer to buy British online payments processor Paysafe (OTCPK:NVAFF), which handled $48B in transactions and totaled $1B in revenues in 2016.
- If completed, the deal would be the latest sign of consolidation in payment processing, where banks have been eager not to be left behind as consumer shopping habits shift away from traditional transactions.
- Among various deals just this month, Vantiv (VNTV) agreed to acquire the U.K.'s Worldpay for $10B, and Danish payment services firm Nets said it had been approached by potential buyers.
- In 2015, Visa (NYSE:V) paid ~$24B to buy back its Visa Europe unit from a group of European banks and payment service providers, with the intention of using its broader network to compete with Mastercard (NYSE:MA), which also had consolidated its European operations.