— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
Shift4, the Lehigh County-based payments processer, will buy a Swiss firm for more than $1 billion, and has chosen its president to succeed founder Jared Isaacman as chief executive.
Shares in the company (NYSE:FOUR) touched a 52-week high of $127.50 Tuesday afternoon but dropped in late trading. At 6:33 p.m., the shares were down $12.46 to $113.20.
Late trading can be light and volatile, and the company gave the market a lot to digest at 4 p.m. Tomorrow’s moves might be a better indicator. Disclosure: I own shares in Shift4.
Taylor Lauber will take over when Isaacman goes to NASA, the company said today. I interviewed Lauber once, he is a smart guy who is on board with the company’s mantra of growth but “profitable growth.” That is, don’t take losses to get market share.
Isaacman is a 42-year-old billionaire and two-time traveler into space via SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company. Isaacman founded what is now Shift4 in the basement of his New Jersey home in 1999, when he was 16.
Shift4 also announced an agreement to acquire Global Blue Group (NYSE:GB) for $7.50 per share, or about $1.5 billion. Based on enterprise value, which includes debt, the Wall Street Journal said the deal is about $2.5 billion.
Global Blue’s website says the company handles tax-free shopping transactions and payments. It helps people get tax refunds on duty-free purchases. There is also a comment about “post-purchase solutions” which is jargon for customer retention and perhaps other things, but it’s really awful jargon.
Still, I wish I’d known about their services when traveling and dealing with VAT (Value Added Tax). I’ll be checking on their website before my next trip to Europe.
“This transaction is the most significant in our 26 years of history,” Lauber said in a company statement. Indeed, the company has made several deals but this is the biggest.
What Global Blue does fits in with Shift4, which started out processing payments for hotels, restaurants and the like, and has expanded into sports, some crypto transactions, customer-loyalty programs and giving to charities.
Anybody who uses a credit card in the U.S. has almost surely had a payment processed by Shift4.
Global Blue operates in 52 countries in Latin America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, while Shift4 is big in North America and expanding internationally.
Shift4 expects to complete the acquisition by the third quarter of this year.
Shift4, based in Upper Saucon Township, also announced earnings for the fourth quarter.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 