Motive Partners Reportedly Working to Acquire Payments Tech Platform ACI Worldwide
Private equity firm Motive Partners is reportedly working to acquire payments technology platform ACI Worldwide.
Motive Partners has been seeking financing for a potential deal for weeks and is in talks with ACI Worldwide, Bloomberg reported Thursday (March 16), citing unnamed sources.
No deal has been finalized, the discussions could fall through, and ACI could choose to sell to another company, the report added.
Reached by PYMNTS, a spokesperson for Motive Partners declined to comment on the report.
A spokesperson from ACI Worldwide told PYMNTS via email: “As a matter of policy, ACI Worldwide does not comment on market rumors or speculation.”
ACI Worldwide had a market value of $2.5 billion on Thursday and has been a takeover target for months, according to the report.
Bloomberg reported Jan. 4 that ACI Worldwide was talking with private equity firms and working with financial advisers to gauge interest in an acquisition.
The company is seen as a ripe target for a takeover because it is one of the payments industry’s smaller players, and because there has been a lot of consolidation in the sector over the past few years, according to the report.
It was founded in 1975 and has offices in 34 countries.
During the company’s most recent earnings call, which was held March 1, ACI Worldwide Interim President and CEO Thomas Warsop acknowledged rumors that the company is a takeover target and said, “We don’t comment on rumor.
“My team is fully aligned on doing what is best in the long-term interests of our shareholders,” Warsop said at the time. “That is not going to change no matter how many stories pop up.”
In that March 1 earnings report, ACI Worldwide said that its software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) fees gained 7.8% year over year to $205.8 million, continuing a trend of steady growth in the business.
Warsop said during the call that there are a number of tailwinds in place for the company as “payments continue to mature as a key differentiator for our customers” and “the real-time payments revolution, around the world, is real and it’s accelerating.”