Skrill strikes deal to acquire paysafecard
Payments provider agrees 100% acquisition of Austrian prepaid vouchers supplier for up to 140m.
Online payment processor Skrill has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of shares in prepaid voucher provider paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG and its subsidiary companies paysafecard.com Wertkarten Vertriebs GmbH and Prepaid Services Company Limited.
The company formerly known as Moneybookers, which last year began a major rebranding, will acquire the Austrian company – which provides its voucher services for major egaming operators including Bet365 and PokerStars – for a total consideration of up to 140m.
Described as “The biggest [acquisition] in Skrill’s history to date,” the deal will be completed subject to regulatory approvals from Austrian and UK financial regulators as well as all relevant merger control authorities, with around 150 Paysafecard staff members – the majority based in Vienna – being retained and joining Skrill’s 560-strong workforce.
No decision will be taken as to whether whether the paysafecard brand will remain separate or whether it will be integrated into the existing brand until the acquisition secures regulatory approval, though the combined entity will have over 27m end users, almost 130,000 merchant customers and over 100 different payment options in more than 40 currencies, according to Skrill’s owner Investcorp.
Skrill CEO Siegfried Heimgaertner said: “This acquisition will add significant scale to the Skrill Group in terms of payment volume, customers and merchants and will increase our overall market share.
“The combined entity will offer a unique proposition in the payments market combining our leading digital wallet with the sophisticated POS and cash network of paysafecard,” added Heimgaertner, who said the deal “Enhances our product portfolio significantly.”
The news comes just two weeks after Heimgaertner was appointed as CEO, with the former executive vice president of payment solutions company Ingenico replacing co-CEOs Martin Ott and Nikolai Riesenkampff.
It also follows the unveiling of Skrill’s ‘1-tap’ payment solution, which allows customers using Skrill to make mobile payments on various smartphones using a single click, first launched in January this year.
Paysafecard CEO Michael Müller said of the acquisition “After 12 years of developing the company from scratch the acquisition by a strategic partner like Skrill is the next stage for our rapidly growing and internationally-oriented company.”