As EMV Comes to the U.S. Market, Canada’s NBS Buys Terminal Maker Equinox

Equinox Payments LLC has a new owner. In a bid to strengthen its hand in the market for EMV gear in the United States, NBS Payment Solutions Inc. announced late Thursday it bought the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based payment-terminal maker for an undisclosed amount from the private-equity investment firm Gores Group LLC.

Equinox is the U.S. unit of the former POS terminal maker Hypercom Corp., which Gores bought in 2011. VeriFone Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., purchased the international segment of Hypercom.

Terminal maker NBS bought Equinox because the combination of Equinox’s brand, products and sales and support network, and NBS’s expertise in security, EMV migration, and wireless technology will bolster Equinox’s position within the United States, says Drazen Ivanovic, NBS president and chief executive. The U.S. payment card system is migrating to chip cards based on the EMV standard propagated by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. Equinox has also in recent months produced EMV-capable terminals for independent sales organizations, including Harbortouch.

“This business combination will immediately improve the combined capabilities of both organizations and enable us to better serve our loyal customers,” says Stuart Taylor, Equinox vice president of payment solutions.

The Equinox name will continue in use, Ivanovic says, with future branding and strategy for sales of NBS and Equinox devices in the United States and Canada, respectively, under review.

Equinox likely will remain the number-three U.S. payment-terminal maker behind VeriFone and France-based Ingenico S.A., says Gil Luria, managing director of equity research at Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities.

“There may be some disruption to Equinox since this is the second ownership change in the last three years, but I would expect Equinox to continue to be the number-three terminal maker in the U.S.,” Luria says, based on his data.

NBS, however, begs to differ. NBS says Equinox sold 241,235 terminals in the United States in 2012. In a research note Luria published in October on VeriFone, he estimates VeriFone sold 1,134,000 terminals in the United States in 2012 and Ingenico sold 216,000, making Equinox the number-two terminal company.

Equinox sells the Optimum, Apollo, and L-Series MultiLane devices. NBS sells the Noire line of terminals.