Shift4 Payments is to acquire Canadian gift card company Givex for C$200 million in an all-cash transaction.
Givex provides cloud-based software services to merchants for payments, loyalty programmes and point-of-sale systems.
The firm, which has 130,000 active locations in ten countries, posted annual revenue of C$80.8 million for the last reporting period, up from C$49.3 million in 2019.
"Givex has a considerable footprint around the world which will dramatically increase Shift4's overall customer base" states Shift4 president Taylor Lauber. "At the same time, their gift card and loyalty solutions are second to none and will add significant value for our customers, creating stickier relationships and enhancing our overall value proposition."
Publicly-listed Shift4 has itself been the subject of acquisition speculation. The firm, which has a market valuation of around $7 billion, received multiple offers from potential suitors after putting itself in the shop window in December. All approaches were turned down owing to disagreements over the company's valuation.
The company has since engaged in an acquisition spree of its own, buying a majority stake in European hospitality POS business Vectron and completing its acquisition of US-based Revel Systems in June.
Speaking on the planned acquisition of Givex. Lauber says: “Similar to other deals we have recently completed, this acquisition aligns perfectly with how we like to deploy capital — adding blue-chip merchants at a low customer acquisition cost while delivering additional benefits to our customer base.”