Fidelity has deal to buy eFunds

[thelakelander]

This deal should solidify FIS as Jacksonville's 4th largest F500 company.

By Mark Basch,
The Times-Union

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. Wednesday announced a $1.8 billion deal to buy eFunds Corp. that Jacksonville-based Fidelity expects to help the company grow.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based eFunds, or EFD, provides electronic payment processing and analytical services for businesses. Its services complement Fidelity's businesses, which provide processing services for financial companies and other businesses.

"Overall it adds scale, product capability and geographic reach," Fidelity Chief Executive Lee Kennedy said.

EFD can offer new products to Fidelity customers such as ATM processing and modeling and analytic tools, he said. It also will expand Fidelity's geographic reach, as EFD serves customers in 70 countries, he said.

Kennedy also said EFD will add "enormous scale" to Fidelity's business. He said as the company gets bigger, it can offer its services at lower costs.

"The business we're in has really become a scale business," Kennedy said.

EFD had $552 million in revenue last year, while Fidelity, which was spun off as a completely separate company from Fidelity National Financial Inc., had $4.1 billion.

Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS, said it expects to realize $65 million in annual costs savings after the merger is completed. Kennedy said Wednesday it is "a little bit premature" to discuss specific expense cuts, but he did say the deal will be good for Jacksonville.

"We expect over the next few years we'll probably add positions in Jacksonville," he said.

full article: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/062807/bus_180557763.shtml