Global Payments Announces Agreements to Acquire Worldpay

Global Payments Inc., a leading worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions, recently announced definitive agreements to divest its Issuer Solutions business to FIS for $13.5 billion and acquire Worldpay from GTCR and FIS for a net purchase price of $22.7 billion, or total value of $24.25 billion including $1.55 billion of anticipated tax assets. This reflects a 12.3x adjusted EBITDA multiple for Issuer Solutions and an 8.5x adjusted EBITDA multiple for Worldpay on a net basis inclusive of run-rate synergies.

Global Payments and Worldpay provide highly complementary payments, software and commerce enablement solutions to merchants and partners worldwide, including many self-serve kiosks. On a combined basis, the company will have extensive global reach and scale, serving more than 6 million customers and enabling approximately 94 billion transactions and $3.7 trillion in volume across more than 175 countries. The transaction positions Global Payments as a leading merchant solutions provider, with exposure to the most attractive geographies and verticals and capabilities to serve the full merchant spectrum, from SMB to enterprise, and all manner of software and platform providers globally.

“Today marks a defining day for Global Payments and a pivotal milestone in our journey to become the worldwide partner of choice for commerce solutions. The acquisition of Worldpay and divestiture of Issuer Solutions further sharpen our strategic focus and simplify Global Payments as a pure play merchant solutions business with significantly expanded capabilities, extensive scale, greater market access and an enhanced financial profile,” said Cameron Bready, chief executive officer, in a recent press release.

Bready continued, “Global Payments and Worldpay bring together highly complementary capabilities and distribution networks, creating significant opportunities for the combined business to accelerate growth, amplify investment in innovation and elevate client and partner experiences with best-in-class solutions. This transaction provides us with one of the world’s most feature rich platforms to support ecommerce and enterprise customers across key high growth geographies and verticals, while also enhancing our integrated and embedded capabilities to deliver seamless solutions to software and platform providers worldwide.”

Bready concluded, “We could not be more excited about the future, as we bring together Global Payments and Worldpay and establish a strategic partnership with FIS. These transactions enhance our strengths, open new growth opportunities and accelerate our transformation, which we expect will drive significant value for our customers, partners, team members and shareholders.”

“We are excited to enter this next phase of Worldpay’s evolution by uniting with Global Payments to create something special in the payments industry,” said Charles Drucker, chief executive officer at Worldpay. “Our solutions will enhance value for our customers, especially for Worldpay’s small and medium-sized businesses. The combination of Global Payments and Worldpay brings together two strong teams with similar histories, a shared culture of innovation and deep payments expertise. I am thrilled about the new opportunities this transaction brings for both of our businesses and our team members worldwide.”

Compelling Strategic Rationale and Value Creation

Leading Pure Play Commerce Solutions Provider: The transactions further simplify Global Payments’ business, positioning the company as a leading pure play merchant solutions provider at scale with world class distribution channels serving many of the highest-growing areas in payments. Combined, Global Payments and Worldpay will provide cutting-edge solutions to more than 6 million customers across the merchant spectrum, while enabling 94 billion transactions and $3.7 trillion in payment volume annually.

Delivering Innovative Payments and Software Solutions Across the Full Spectrum of Customers: The combination brings together Global Payments’ differentiated merchant solutions focused on SMB customers with Worldpay’s world class capabilities for ecommerce and enterprise clients, positioning the combined business to deliver end-to-end payment solutions and leading customer experiences for merchants of all types and sizes globally.

Diversifying Business Mix and Strengthening Ecommerce and Integrated Offerings: Worldpay brings best-in-class ecommerce capabilities with exposure to high growth verticals allowing Global Payments to further diversify its business to better serve digital native customers. The transaction also expands Global Payments’ integrated and embedded capabilities for software and platform partners, adding Worldpay’s Payrix solution to complement its existing offerings. Combined, Global Payments will have leading offerings across an array of operating models supporting software and platform partners worldwide.

Amplifying Distribution and Expanding Installed Customer Base: The combination enhances and further diversifies distribution globally, while also providing an expansive installed base of customers. Worldpay’s existing SMB customers will benefit from an expanded portfolio of capabilities, including Global Payments’ Genius POS offering and its extensive suite of commerce enablement solutions.

Establishing Strategic Partnership with FIS: As part of the transaction, Global Payments and FIS will also establish a commercial relationship to bring a comprehensive suite of solutions, including core banking, treasury management, embedded commerce, issuer processing, risk and fraud and merchant solutions to partners on a global basis.

Enhanced Financial Profile: The combined company is expected to have pro forma 2025 annual adjusted net revenue and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $12.5 billion and $6.5 billion, respectively, inclusive of run-rate expense synergies. Global Payments expects to retain its investment grade credit ratings at closing, and to reduce adjusted net leverage to 3.0x within 18 to 24 months.

Significant Value Creation Opportunities: The transaction is expected to be modestly accretive in year one post close and mid to high single digit accretive thereafter. The combination of Global Payments and Worldpay is expected to deliver approximately $600 million of annual run-rate cost synergies over three years post closing, primarily through combining business operations, technology infrastructure, and other scale efficiencies. The transaction will unlock additional value through anticipated run-rate revenue synergies of at least $200 million over the same timeframe, as the combined business capitalizes on its strengths across ecommerce, integrated and embedded payments, software and commerce enablement solutions, amplifies its investment in new product and innovation, and leverages its expansive distribution footprint globally.

Timing and Approvals

The transactions are subject to receipt of required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and expected to close in the first half of 2026.

The company will release first quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 and will host a live audio webcast to discuss these results at 7:30 a.m. EDT. All interested parties may access the audio webcast via the investor relations page of the company’s website at investors.globalpayments.com. A replay of the webcast will also be available after the event.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc. is a leading payments technology company delivering innovative software and services to our customers globally. Our technologies, services, and team member expertise allow us to provide a broad range of solutions that enable our customers to operate their businesses more efficiently across a variety of channels around the world. Headquartered in Georgia with approximately 27,000 team members worldwide, Global Payments is a Fortune 500® company and a member of the S&P 500 with worldwide reach spanning North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. For more information, visit company.globalpayments.com.