NCR Agrees to Buy Tidel’s ATM Business, Beefs up Self-Service Offerings

NCR Corp. is acquiring Tidel Technologies Inc.'s ATM business for $10.2 million in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. Following a terse announcement released this morning, spokesmen for both companies referred to an 8-K filing Tidel is expected to make later today with the Securities and Exchange Commission for further particulars. Houston-based Tidel, which was originally part of Southland Corp. (now 7-Eleven Inc.), entered the ATM business in 1992 and has shipped its machines mostly to U.S. markets, and primarily for use in stores and other off-premise venues, though last October it introduced its first through-the-wall ATM, the model 3700. Though a major ATM manufacturer, NCR's sales to overseas markets have been stronger than in the U.S. “We believe Tidel's strengths will complement our own,” says the NCR spokesman. “This is an effort to broaden our position in the self-service market and strengthen or position in the entry-level [ATM] market.” The deal comes at a time when ATM usage at installed machines has been plummeting, particularly in off-premise markets. The average monthly transactions per-machine for retail deployments by independent sales organizations, a distribution channel Tidel and other makers have relied on, dropped to 355 in 2003 from 509 five years earlier, according to Dove Consulting. Dayton, Ohio-based NCR, meanwhile, has been building up its self-service business through acquisition. Last fall, it paid $26 million to acquire Kinetics Inc., Lake Mary, Fla., a maker of ticketing machines for the airlines. Tidel has also had a recent change in top management. Mark K. Levenick, who had been Tidel's chief operating officer, took over as interim chief executive in December upon the death of James T. Rash, the company's long-time chairman and chief executive. As a result of the acquisition, approximately half of Tidel's employees will become employees of NCR.