Posts tagged First Data
Worldline's $8B acquisition of Ingenico's $3B revenue would barely pay for Robinhood or Revolut's valuations
Worldline's $8B acquisition of Ingenico's $3B revenue would barely pay for Robinhood or Revolut's valuations

I look at how spending $8 billion can either buy you $3 billion of revenue from Ingenico, or the private valuation of Robinhood and/or Revolut. Would you rather have a massive cash-flow machine, or a venture bet on a Millennial investing meme? To articulate this question in more detail, we walk through the impact behavioral finance has had on economic rational actor theories, and why quantitative financial modeling often similarly fails to capture the underlying tectonic plates of industry. It may not be wrong to bet on Millennials. We talk about what identity economics (ala identity politics) means for market value and how to think about generational change.

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microeconomics, philosophy, generational change, Fractals & reflexivity, decentralized financeLex SokolinWorldline, Ingenico, Revolut, Robinhood, First Data, Worldpay, Gen Z, Fundstrat
$20 Billion TSYS acquisition in the shadow of Alibaba's $500B SME aggregation
$20 Billion TSYS acquisition in the shadow of Alibaba's $500B SME aggregation

I have been reading Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built this week, something everyone interested in understanding the future of Google, Goldman, Uber, or Amazon should do. The narrative starts with China's small business explosion, and Ma's genius is to tap into global demand for the products of those businesses through an online marketplace and associated financial services. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's pause to acknowledge a massive, systemic transaction that was announced this week: payments processing company Global Payments acquiring TSYS (Total Payments Systems) for $21.5 billion.

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paytech, small business, civilization and politics, embedded financeLex SokolinAnt Financial, TSYS, Global Payments, First Data, Plaid, Bud, Tink, Raisin
Facebook and Bitfinex both want $1 Billion for Crypto Stablecoins
Facebook and Bitfinex both want $1 Billion for Crypto Stablecoins

There is poetry in the symmetry of this situation. Bitfinex is looking to raise $1 billion in capital to support the most popular stablecoin Tether, which it controls. Facebook is reportedly looking to raise $1 billion in capital from First Data, Visa and Mastercard and other payments companies to shore up its own stablecoin asset. Poetry is where the similarities end, and all these devils are in the details.

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stablecoins, enterprise blockchain, crypto, paytech, big techLex SokolinFacebook, Bitfinex, USDT, Libra / Diem, Visa, MasterCard, First Data