CheckFree to Acquire American Payment Systems to Establish Leadership Position in the Walk-In Bill Payment Market
December 17 2003 - 8:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
CheckFree to Acquire American Payment Systems to Establish
Leadership Position in the Walk-In Bill Payment Market ATLANTA,
Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CheckFree Corporation , the
leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and
products, today announced an agreement with UIL Holdings
Corporation to acquire American Payment Systems, Inc. (APS), a
leading U.S. provider of walk-in bill payment services. Based in
Wallingford, Connecticut, APS provides walk-in bill payment
services through an extensive national network of more than 8,000
retail and agent locations, which reaches 70 percent of consumers
in the top 75 U.S. metropolitan areas. Today, APS enables 7 million
households to pay for services in-person. The company serves
hundreds of billers with contracted payment services and manages a
growing network of non-contracted billers for electronic
transaction processing. For 2003, APS expects to process nearly 120
million payments. "This new bill payment channel significantly
extends our reach in electronic billing and payment. CheckFree is
the leading provider of electronic billing and payment services,
but we do not reach the 20 percent of the U.S. population who pay
their bills in person in retail locations around the country," said
Pete Kight, chairman and chief executive officer of CheckFree.
"Combining APS' retail footprint with our current electronic
billing and payment offering greatly enhances our value proposition
to billers. In addition, APS' walk-in bill payment transactions
leverage the efficiencies and economies of scale delivered through
our end-to-end payment processing infrastructure." Under the terms
of the agreement, and pending receipt of regulatory approvals and
satisfaction of customary closing conditions, CheckFree will pay
approximately $110 million in cash for the outstanding stock of
APS. The transaction is expected to close before the end of
CheckFree's 2004 fiscal year, which closes on June 30, 2004.
CheckFree will provide specific financial guidance for this
transaction upon closing. As part of the deal, CheckFree also
acquires APS' prepaid stored value MasterCard business, which
leverages the same retail network to provide APS agents with an
additional payment service to meet the needs of consumers who may
not have an established banking relationship. CheckFree is not
acquiring APS' prepaid telephony business, which is managed via a
joint venture and is not aligned strategically with CheckFree's
goals for the acquisition. The lines of business that CheckFree is
acquiring have combined annual revenue, net of certain agent
commissions, of more than $40 million per year. About American
Payment Systems ( http://www.apsnet.com/ ) American Payment Systems
(APS) is a leading provider of walk-in bill payment services,
accepting bill payments on behalf of 200+ clients at over 8,000
national retail locations. Annually, APS processes approximately
120 million transactions for those that want or need to pay their
bills in person. Realizing their expertise in the business of
moving money and information, APS expanded their products and
services to include both authorized and non- contracted walk-in
bill payment, a line of prepaid products including a prepaid
MasterCard(R) card, and prepaid telephony. About CheckFree (
http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ ) CheckFree (NASDAQ:CKFR) is the
leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and
products. Founded in 1981 and celebrating its 23rd year in
e-commerce, CheckFree is comprised of three divisions: Electronic
Commerce, Software, and Investment Services. CheckFree launched the
first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in
1997. In the quarter ended September 30, 2003, more than 11 million
consumers initiated online payments through services offered by
CheckFree's Electronic Commerce division. Electronic billing and
payment is available through more than a thousand financial
services organizations, including banks, brokerage firms, Internet
portals and personal financial management (PFM) software. At these
sites, consumers are able to electronically receive and pay about
300 bills, representing the bills most common to a U.S. household.
CheckFree delivers nearly 15 million e-bills each quarter.
CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment
management services to thousands of financial institutions
nationwide. The division's clients manage more than 1.3 million
portfolios totaling more than $700 billion in assets. CheckFree's
Software division provides solutions through three operating units:
CheckFree ACH Solutions, CheckFree Financial and Compliance
Solutions (CFACS), and CheckFree i-Solutions. CheckFree ACH
Solutions provides software and services that are used to process
more than two-thirds of the nation's nine billion Automated
Clearing House payments, while CFACS provides reconciliation,
financial messaging, workflow and compliance software and services
to more than 600 organizations in banking, brokerage, investment
management, insurance and credit card industries, among others.
CheckFree i- Solutions is the leading provider of e-billing and
e-statement software and services for both business-to-consumer and
business-to-business applications, with more billers as clients
than all of its competitors have combined. Certain of CheckFree's
statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as
such are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include
statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs,
expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without
limitation, the risk that regulatory approvals of the transaction
may not be obtained, the various risks inherent in CheckFree's
business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to
time in CheckFree's periodic reports filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including CheckFree's Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended June 30, 2003 (filed September 15, 2003),
and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September
30, 2003 (filed November 13, 2003). One or more of these factors
have affected, and could in the future affect CheckFree's business
and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual
results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can
be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this
press release will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such
forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a
representation by CheckFree, or any other person, that the
objectives and plans of CheckFree will be achieved. All forward-
looking statements made in this press release are based on
information presently available to management, and CheckFree
assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
DATASOURCE: CheckFree Corporation CONTACT: Media Relations, Judy
DeRango Wicks, +1-678-375-1595, or , or Investor Relations, Tina
Moore, +1-678-375-1278, or , both of CheckFree Corporation Web
site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/821650.html
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