Credit card swipe machine maker VeriFone to buy Point for $824 million

VeriFone Systems Inc, the US-based credit card swipe machine maker today agreed to buy Stockhom-based Point from Nordic Capital for about €600 million ($824 million), which could catpult it to the world's largest maker of alternative payment machines.

Point, Northern Europe's largest provider of payment and gateway services and solutions for retailers, has operations in 11 Northern European countries and serves a captive network encompassing almost 475,000 merchant contracts.

Through this network, Point offers retailers a full range of services and solutions, including point-of-sale technology and support, gateway services, card encryption services, and multi-channel e-commerce processing.

Point installations handle 10 million transactions per day, and customers include some of the largest retail companies in Europe, as well as small independent stores and online merchants. Point has a local presence in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and the UK.

During the first 12 months, VeriFone expects the acquisition to add approximately $260 million in sales and expects revenue to exceed 30 per cent of sales in fiscal year 2012, and 50 per cent of revenue by fiscal year 2015.

VeriFone will pay approximately €600 million and approximately €170 million debt.