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Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) announced Friday after the stock market closed that Pamela A. Joseph, the processor’s president and chief operating officer, had resigned from her positions and as a member of TSYS’s board of directors, effective Sept. 30.
The resignation triggered speculation about the company’s future and apparently was the reason TSYS’s stock fell by about 5% Monday morning on the New York Stock Exchange from Friday’s $69.07 close. Joseph, a veteran of merchant acquirer Elavon and its parent company U.S. Bancorp, had taken the No. 2 spot at TSYS only in May of 2016 and was seen by some as the heir apparent to chairman and chief executive M. Troy Woods.
Woods, 66, will assume the title of president, Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS said. The company also reported that Woods has committed to remain CEO at least through the end of 2020.
No reason was given for Joseph’s resignation. “It was a mutual decision,” was all a TSYS spokesperson said in response to an emailed Digital Transactions Newsrequest for comment.
In a Monday research note, stock analyst Thomas McCrohan of Mizuho Securities USA LLC called Joseph’s resignation a “net negative” for the company because of the “positive feedback” Mizuho had received from investors about her possibly succeeding Woods. “While no reason for her resignation was provided in the press release, we view her resignation as an indication she lacked sufficient board support to be appointed CEO of TSS,” McCrohan said.
McCrohan also said the resignation does little to resolve speculation that TSYS might be acquired by Jacksonville, Fla.-based processor Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS). But he added that TSYS’s investor relations department said late Friday that no discussions are underway with FIS.
Talk of TSYS as a merger candidate began in late July. The company’s stock had edged up in the first half of 2017 but began climbing even higher over the summer, increasing 12% since July 5.
Joseph retired from U.S. Bancorp in June 2015 after serving as vice chairman of the Minneapolis-based banking firm’s payment-services division and CEO of its Atlanta-based Elavon subsidiary. Before joining Elavon in late 2004, she worked at Visa International and Wells Fargo & Co.
