The relevance of old financial giants like Worldline and Ingenico has been threatened by Fintech entrants like Stripe and Adyen, as well as tech-fin products, like Google Pay and Apple pay. This is speculated to be part of why both companies have to merge to survive.
Worldline and Ingenico announced their merger in a press release as takeover terms were concluded and consented by shareholders of the firms who were into cryptocurrency prior to now. Worldline and Ingenico, however, look to finalise the merger by the third quarter in 2020.
Reportedly, CEO of Worldline, Gilles Grapinet, would be the head of the merged business expected to provide jobs for over 19,000 people in 50 countries. The company provides financial services and had several products that cut across the entire industry. Ingenico, on the other hand, creates point-of-sale terminals responsible for around 37% of the world market.
Worldline and Ingenico merger added advantage for stakeholders
Part of the merging terms between these two companies is worldline providing Ingenico owners diverse cash and stock reward, with a bounty of 17 percent in excess of its Monday market value.
The merged companies’ primary owners would be worldline stakeholders owning around 65 percent and Ingenico stakeholders will hold 35 percent of the company. The payment industry has however experienced several mergers and takeovers as earlier this year, Visa took over plaid, a fintech startup that deals in crypto.
However, it is said that emerging fintech companies pose a threat to already know financial service providers. DeFi, another emerging form of decentralized finance that makes individuals perform financial services with no contribution from financial institutions are problems for already established companies.
About Worldline and Ingenico
As the two companies are being pursued by modern fintech products, both companies offer traditional financial services. Worldline offers various services from Point of Sale terminals, e-trade services to e-ticketing and fleet management systems. Ingenico, however, offers Point of Sale machines amidst serial effort of providing more services. Its board of directors fired the previous CEO of over 10 years, Philippe Lazare, in 2018.