The new chief executive of First Data Corp. is likely to bring renewed focus to the processing giant's merchant-acquiring business and move quickly to resolve the drag on growth represented by the company's processing business that supports card issuers, say industry observers. At the same time, Henry C. (Ric) Duques, …

The latest offer from the top executive of Nashville, Tenn.-based merchant processor iPayment Inc. to buy the company and take it private is higher than the one he presented this spring, but contains what appears to be a blunt statement to iPayment board members that they should accept the offer …

Metavante Corp., which through acquisitions has been steadily building a major franchise in processing electronic transactions for multiple constituencies across card, check, and automated clearing-house channels, today announced it is buying Link2Gov Corp., a 10-year-old processor of payments for governmental agencies, utilities, and health-care entities on the Internet and at …

Second-quarter financial results from Houston-based Cardtronics Inc. show the country's largest non-bank ATM operator has more than doubled the number of ATMs it runs, to 26,241, in the year from June 30, 2004, primarily owing to its $106-million acquisition in June last year of E*Trade Financial Services' portfolio of 15,000 …

Citigroup Inc.'s decision to bail out of the merchant-acquiring business, which was announced yesterday, could benefit both the banking kingpin and the buyer of the 15,000-location portfolio, processing giant First Data Corp. But Denver-based FDC may emerge as the bigger winner, some observers say, now that Citi has decided to …

Though he's only been on the job for a few weeks as chief executive of ProxyMed Inc., a transaction-processing, business-process outsourcing, and cost-containment company, John Lettko sees clear parallels between the industry he left–financial services–and the one he's entering?health care. Lettko, the former chief executive of Viewpointe Archive Services, a …

A failure by major investors to understand the business model of an independent sales organization may have prompted yesterday's offer by Gregory S. Daily, chairman and chief executive of iPayment Inc., to buy all outstanding shares of the Nashville, Tenn.-based processor. The company, which went public in March 2003, closed …

Nashville, Tenn.-based independent sales organization iPayment Inc. today reported its revenues and processed charge volume more than doubled in the first quarter compared to the year-ago period, with much of the growth driven by a December acquisition of a merchant portfolio from First Data Merchant Services. In a conference call …

Although their rate of deployment has slowed somewhat, independent sales organizations continue to install ATMs at a rapid rate and now control nearly half of the 394,500 machines in service in the U.S., according to a new study from Tremont Capital Group Inc. Moreover, the Boston-based investment advisory firm's report …

Having doubled its merchant base via portfolio acquisitions last year, Dallas-based processor TransFirst has created a product division aimed, it says, at introducing new services to help retain merchants and give independent sales agents more ways to relieve pressure on pricing. The first new products, which will go live in …