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Global Payments Inc. will roll out its revamped Genius point-of-sale package of products and services domestically in May as a common brand, with an international rollout late this year, chief executive Cameron Bready assured listeners on a conference call early Thursday. A major repositioning of the Atlanta-based company’s acquiring technology, Genius has attracted a “very positive” reception from clients in the early going, Bready told equity analysts during the call, held to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year results.
Global in September said it would position more than a dozen point-of-sale products and services under its Genius brand. “We’re bringing a replatformed Genius to market” for retail and restaurants, Bready said, adding these services are where the company is “investing the most.”
With the rollout, merchants and independent sales organizations “may not require new hardware or software” to adopt Genius, Bready added. “We didn’t invent Genius de novo,” he said. “It’s anchored in solutions we have in the market today.” The product suite represents technology for both restaurants and general retail, altogether representing as many as 16 POS platforms, he estimated.
Altogether, initiatives like Genius now represent an important strategy for Global, executives on the call were careful to point out. “We see value in relationships beyond core [payments] acceptance,” noted Bob Cortopassi, president and chief operating officer.
The Genius brand dates back to 2013, when the merchant processor Merchant Warehouse used it to introduce a point-of-sale platform. Two years later, the company rebranded as Cayan, and in 2017 it was acquired for $1.05 billion by TSYS, a larger processor. TSYS in turn was acquired by Global Payments in 2019.
Among other initiatives, Global is focusing on generative artificial intelligence, Bready said, adding it will be “fully integrated” by the fourth quarter this year. He did not detail the products that will be involved. At the same time, Global will “look to exit” some wholesale acquiring deals the company acquired when it bought the processor EVO in the spring of 2023 for $4 billion
And Global may not be through shedding certain operations, or “places where we don’t have a path to be a scale player. We are evaluating businesses on that front,” Bready said, without adding specifics. Recent moves include the sales of Advanced MD to Francisco Partners for $1.1 billion, Netspend to Rev Worldwide for $1 billion, and a gaming unit to Parthenon Capital Partners for $415 million.
For the quarter, the company’s merchant solutions unit reached $1.8 billion in adjusted net revenue,, up 6% year-over-year. For all of 2024, it clocked $7.1 billion in revenue, a 9% increase. Its issuer solutions division, which supports financial institutions in card operations, reported $542 million in revenue for the quarter, up 2%, and $2.1 billion, up 3%, for the full year.
