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Prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. has acquired GiftCards.com LLC and OmniCard LLC for $120 million, the prepaid specialists announced Wednesday.
GiftCards.com specializes in selling digital and physical prepaid cards through its Web site. OmniCard sells customized prepaid incentive and rewards cards to businesses. Both entities had been owned by Pittsburgh-based Wolfe LLC.
Among the reasons for the purchase by Pleasanton, Calif.-based Blackhawk, which was effective Tuesday, is GiftCards.com’s GiftLocal product, which provides local businesses access to an online site where consumers can purchase a merchant’s gift cards.
“By adding GiftCards.com to Blackhawk’s suite of gift card e-commerce solutions, we expect to broaden our open- and closed-loop product offerings and provide more ways customers can purchase gift cards through more Web sites and mobile applications,” David Jones, Blackhawk general manager of global digital and e-commerce, said in a press release.
The acquisitions could prove fruitful in light of growing consumer awareness of mobile and digital cards. The Retail Gift Card Association, in a survey released in November, found that 49.7% of consumers understood how to redeem a mobile or e-gift card, up from 4% a year prior.
GiftCards.com launched in 1999 and OmniCard in 2007. Among companies using GiftCards.com are Delta Airlines, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Panera Bread. OmniCard says it has more than 5,000 clients, including more than 25% of the Fortune 500, and it has created more than 2,000 branded rewards cards.
