Global Payments plans to squeeze $600 million in cost savings from its recent $24.3 billion acquisition of processing peer Worldpay, partly by eliminating duplicative parts of the businesses.
While the Atlanta payments processor identified the cost-cutting target in April when it announced the mega-deal, it added more context on Tuesday for how it will shave its expenses when it reported first-quarter results.
Specifically, Global Payments Chief Financial Officer Josh Whipple said that about a third of the savings will derive from streamlining the two companies’ technology infrastructure and cutting duplicative vendor and software expenses.
Another third of the savings will result from consolidating the companies’ support structure, their payments processing systems and facility assets around the world, Whipple said during a Tuesday webcast with analysts to discuss earnings and the merger. Finally, the remaining third will come from eliminating duplicative administrative and corporate functions, he said.
Global Payments executives didn’t spell out whether the cost-cutting measures will include a workforce reduction, but such right-sizing after mergers commonly includes the elimination of jobs. The company had 27,000 employees in 37 countries as of the end of last year. A spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment on any potential job cuts.
Cincinnati-based Worldpay is privately-held and doesn’t disclose its headcount. A spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the size of the workforce and plans for it.
Global Payments has already been reducing workforce expenses as part of a prior restructuring of the business begun last year under CEO Cameron Bready, who took the top post in 2023. As part of that transition, the company has also been trying to consolidate disparate offerings under a single brand called Genius.
“The primary driver of the reduction in selling, general and administrative expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was lower compensation and benefits expenses as a result of certain actions taken in 2024 to align our workforce to our new operating model,” the company said in its first-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition to the cost-cutting benefits, Global Payments also expects the merger to provide enhanced sales muscle that will add at least $200 million in annual revenue synergy benefits over those three years, the CFO said.
Global Payments management contends that Worldpay’s larger merchant clients and its e-commerce presence are a good fit with its existing smaller and mid-sized merchant mix, presenting significant cross-selling opportunities. In addition, the overall increased scale is expected to give it more heft in a market swarming with other established players, such as Fiserv, and new entrant fintechs, like Stripe, Shift4 and Adyen, all competing for payments processing volume.
“We have high conviction in and line of sight to the cost savings as well as the revenue synergies from the acquisition, particularly from enhancement opportunities fueled by our complementary solutions and scale,” Bready said during the call.
Nonetheless, the company’s stock dropped 17% the day acquisition was announced, and traded about 30% lower Thursday than a year ago, suggesting investors aren’t so sure.
“To the extent Global was lacking scale, Worldpay addresses that shortcoming; the combined entity will have about $4 trillion of volume, making it the world’s largest merchant company,” William Blair analysts told their investment clients in a note Tuesday. “The question for us is whether Global has technology to drive share in a competitive software-integrated POS market. We are not confident.”
As Global Payments absorbs Worldpay, it will also shed its business providing services to bank card issuers, ceding that unit to Fidelity National Information Services, which previously owned Worldpay along with Chicago private equity firm GTCR.
Jacksonville, Florida-based FIS spun off a 55-percent stake to GTCR in mid-2023 as part of a deal that valued Worldpay at $18.5 billion, making for a quick, fat profit for the investment firm.
FIS also expects to make cost cuts as it absorbs the issuer business. That company forecast $125 million in cost synergy savings, including eliminating duplicative vendor expense, streamlining back office functions, and consolidating operations, according to a presentation when the transaction was announced last month.
“In terms of cost synergies, you should expect to see us get out the gate very quickly with those,” FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris said Tuesday during a first-quarter earnings webcast with analysts.
The latest Global Payments and FIS transactions are expected to close in the first half of next year.
