Headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., with six additional locations nationwide, Ovation Payroll serves nearly 10,000 clients in 48 states and is listed on the Inc. 5000 list of America's Fastest Growing Companies. Heartland will retain Ovation's nearly 150 employees as well as its executive leadership.

In addition to being an important element in Heartland's strategic growth plan for Heartland's payroll business, the acquisition immediately brings aboard additional veteran payroll industry leaders, as well as a highly developed Affinity Partner network to provide high quality sales leads that can be leveraged throughout the Heartland sales force. The acquisition also provides immediate scale to more quickly leverage platform and operating costs while further enhancing Heartland's product and service offerings to merchants in virtually all markets in which Heartland conducts business.

"Integrating Ovation Payroll within Heartland will allow us to further market the advantages of being the only large, public, highly service-oriented, merchant advocate payroll provider offering three-year price lock agreements," said David Gilbert, president, hospitality group, Heartland Payment Systems. "While our consolidated payroll business will now service more than 22,000 clients with the combination of our talented management teams, our powerful sales forces and our great Affinity Partners, we are excited about the opportunity to accelerate our growth. As the industry's only all-inclusive provider and merchant advocate offering guaranteed pricing, Heartland will further help merchants save money and increase productivity by being one partner that bundles an enhanced payroll service platform with payments processing and other solutions. With the addition of Ovation, we also gain a distribution channel into new markets."

Tony Tortorella, president and CEO of Ovation Payroll, added, "I speak for my executive team and all our employees when I share our enthusiasm about becoming a part of Heartland Payment Systems. Over the last three years, we've expanded our national footprint, as well as our payroll and HR services, to become one of the leading payroll providers in the country. By integrating our services, technology and sales teams with an industry leader like Heartland, employers across the country will benefit from the most competitive payroll solutions currently on the market today."

Heartland Payroll Services offers complete, customizable payroll processing solutions, all-inclusive pricing guaranteed for three years, U.S.-based payroll specialists, 100 percent web-based solutions for anytime, anywhere management, an easy-to-use employee self-service portal and a paperless solution with standard direct deposit and prepaid card options. More information can be found at Heartland Payroll Services.