Takeover Buzz Subsides As Ingenico Rejects a $1.9 Billion Bid

It’s all over but the shouting, at least for now. France’s Ingenico S.A., which sells point-of-sale terminals in North America and elsewhere around the world, on Sunday rejected a suitor that had offered $1.9 billion for the company. Bloomberg had reported on Friday that the suitor was Danaher Corp., Washington, D.C., a conglomerate that among other properties owns the Greensboro, N.C.-based Gilbarco Inc. petroleum-dispenser business. Ingenico rejected the bid because of concerns by the French government about its assets falling into the hands of a foreign company, according to press reports.

In a terse statement issued Sunday, Ingenico simply said the prospective acquirer, which it did not name, “has not been in a position to submit a binding offer that could be accepted by the [Ingenico] Board.” Reportedly, Danaher’s bid ran into interference from Safran S.A., a French electronics company that owns 22.5% of Ingenico. Some 30% of Safran’s equity, in turn, is owned by the French government. French officials have identified Ingenico as a “strategic” business, and likely put pressure on Safran to stymie the transaction, Reuters reported.

Ingenico said it had received a “non-binding” offer Dec. 14, though news of the prospective deal didn’t break until Friday. The possibility remains open that the board could be holding out for a higher bid, which could put Ingenico in play again at some future date. But it appears that offer would have to come from a domestic concern. “It’s possible indeed that the French government might intervene economically or simply use political pressures to avoid seeing a company like Ingenico being taken over by a foreign entity, it’s not an impossible scenario,” notes Gwenn Bezard, research director at Aite Group LLC, Boston-based payments researcher.

While Ingenico is a major producer of payment terminals around the world, its North American business accounts for only about 10% of the company’s revenues, or some $31 million in the third quarter, according to an Ingenico financial report. Even so, the offer for Ingenico comes at a time of consolidation among U.S terminal makers.

Only last month, VeriFone Systems Inc. and Hypercom Corp. came to terms on a $485 million all-stock deal under which VeriFone will acquire its archrival Hypercom, bolstering its position in both Europe and the U.S. Hypercom had earlier rejected a $283 million cash offer from VeriFone as too low. A spokesman for Atlanta-based Ingenico North America did not return a Digital Transactions News call for comment.