Atlanta-based Global Payments makes $4 billion purchase

Global Payments is making an acquisition. Bob Andres bandres@ajc.com

Global Payments is making an acquisition. Bob Andres bandres@ajc.com

Atlanta-based Global Payments, which sells technology for financial transactions, announced Monday that it will acquire EVO Payments for $4 billion.

The acquisition will allow Global Payments to expand, selling into new markets, while adding to its own product line in business-to-business software, officials said in a statement.

EVO has about 550,000 customers in a dozen countries in North America, South America and Europe. It processes about 3 billion transactions a year.

After the deal is done, Global Payments software and technology will be used at more than 4.5 million locations through 1,500 financial institutions, the statement said.

As part of the deal, Silver Lake Partners is investing $1.5 billion in Global Payments. Officials said it was a “strategic investment.”

Silver Lake will receive a seat on the company’s board of directors. Company officials said the investment is likely to eventually make Silver Lake a shareholder in Global Payments eventually.

Also announced Monday was Global Payments’ sale of the consumer-facing business of Netspend for $1 billion to Searchlight Capital and Rev Worldwide. However, Global Payments is holding on to Netspend’s business-to-business assets, said Jeff Sloan, the company’s chief executive, in a statement.

The company Monday also announced net revenues for the most recent quarter of $2.06 billion, up 6.1% from the same quarter a year earlier. Not counting the Netspend assets that are being sold, adjusted net revenue was up 9%, officials said.

Global Payments has 25,000 employees, including about 7,000 in Georgia, divided between Atlanta and Columbus. EVO has about 2,400 employees, but declined to provide a regional breakdown of its workforce.