Dive Brief:
- The digital payments processor Shift4 Payments agreed to pay NZ$296.4 million ($180 million) to buy Smartpay Holdings, which operates a distribution network selling payments services throughout Australia and New Zealand, according to a Sunday press release.
- Shift4, which has been on an acquisition tear in recent years, will extend its services to Smartpay’s 40,000 merchants in the region. Smartpay, led by CEO Marty Pomeroy, has 235 employees, all of whom will be retained, Shift4 CEO Taylor Lauber said by email on Monday.
- “By combining our payment infrastructure with Smartpay’s distribution capabilities, we’re well positioned to go-to-market at scale in the region,” Lauber said in the release.
Dive Insight:
Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Shift4, which offers point-of-sale hardware as well as payments software, has been buying other companies in the past several years to extend its reach into new regions and deepen its roots in regions where it already operates. It has focused on offering its services in sports and entertainment venues, like stadiums, but has also expanded into other areas, including restaurants and hotels.
The acquisition of Auckland-based Smartpay will build on Shift4’s prior purchases of companies with operations in Australia and New Zealand. Past acquisitions touching the region include Shift4’s $2.5 billion purchase of Global Blue earlier this year in February as well the $250 million buyout of point-of-sale rival Revel last year and the purchase of Canadian gift card company Givex for $148 million.
The latest deal will strengthen Shift4’s hand in selling all of those acquired services in the Australia and New Zealand regions, following the company’s playbook in other areas, such as the United Kingdom and Germany. “This allows for greater distribution of all of those products via the Smartpay salesforce,” Lauber said in the email.
Keeping Pomeroy and the rest of the workforce lets Shift4 tap the expertise of employees already well-suited to selling those services in the region and allowing for more expansion, Lauber contended.
“As with most of our acquisitions, these employees help us expand distribution capabilities and otherwise replace hiring we would need to do to build a presence in the geography,” he said in the the email. “They are already experts so enabling them with our products is much faster than hiring from scratch.”
Shift4 this month named Lauber as its CEO as founder Jared Isaacman shifted to an executive chairman role at the company. Isaacman had planned to become head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after President Donald Trump nominated him for the post, but the White House abruptly dropped his nomination after Trump’s falling out with Elon Musk, Isaacman’s billionaire friend and the CEO of SpaceX.
