FinTech Megadeal for April 2025

FIS has announced it will purchase Global Payments' (GPN) issuer solutions business for $12bn, with GPN intending to buy WorldPay for $22.7bn 

(Note: WorldPay is 45% owned by FIS and 55% owned by Chicago private equity firm GTCR).

GPN is essentially divesting (issuer solutions) and investing (WorldPay), with a net investment of $10.7bn. 

GPN is run by Cameron Bready, who moved up from the CFO role, and was formerly of ITC Holdings Corp, electricity transmission company (publicly traded), where he focused on Finance and corporate development and prior to that was at Northeast utilities. He studied business in Atlanta. What remains in Global Payments following the divestment should be clearly understood - of course WorldPay will be a new integration.

Lots of analyst commentary has bubbled up around this deal with Mizuho commenting FIS is "winning the trade" as it acquires a "stable grower". Less commentary has surrounded GPN (GPN-WorldPay) specifically.

Microsoft Quarterly Earnings to Fall Short of Analyst Estimates

So spake Microsoft finance chief Amy Hood (Duke University economics graduate and Harvard MBA, ex Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Associate), and the stock slid 6.2%. Goldman Sachs described the company as "well positioned" to benefit from AI adoption. Mizuho said Microsoft was one of its top picks for 2025.

ARM to be bought by Softbank (IoT Big Driver)

Cambridge, UK based Smartphone-chip-maker ARM Holdings confirmed it is to be bought by Japan's Softbank (a recognised investor in "technology paradigm shifts") for £24bn (or 31bn USD), a premium of 43% on its traded market value. ARM's customers include Samsung and Apple. However, an earlier acquisition of Sprint Telecom is weighing heavy on Softbank's finances who will take a loan from Mizuho Bank to finance the acquisition of ARM for just under one-third of the deal value. Growth in the "Internet of Things" (and the evolution from the mobile Internet) is believed to be one of the prime motivations behind the acquisition.