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Global Payments Inc. is focusing on its new Genius point-of-sale initiative as it prepares to welcome the big merchant processor Worldpay into its fold, the Atlanta-based company’s top executives said early Wednesday.
Global launched Genius for restaurants in May, with Genius for retail following last month. Now, the revamped POS program, which consolidates some 16 point-of-sale products into a platform that can sell internationally, is set for growth as the company tweaks the program, the company said. “The momentum [for Genius] continued in July,” noted chief executive Cameron Bready on a conference call with equity analysts. To help maintain that trend, he added, the company added a softPOS capability last month. SoftPOS is technology that lets sellers run transactions on an ordinary mobile device.
While the company has been remodeling its acquiring operation, it has been preparing to welcome the Worldpay processing platform into its midst as part of a $22.7 billion transaction with FIS Inc. That deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. As part of the transaction, Global’s card-issuing business will go to FIS. Issuing accounts for a little less than a quarter of Global’s revenue.
Bready was keen to assure his audience the massive transaction, announced early in May, is moving along. “We’re making progress on the acquisition of Worldpay,” he said. “Key [regulatory] approvals are proceeding as expected. We’re on track to close in the first half of 2026.” Annually, Worldpay will bring 100 billion transactions and $4 trillion in volume to Global, Bready said. “We’ve begun building the integration road map,” he added.
With the planned sale of its issuer business, Global has “announced divestitures accounting for $550 million in revenue,” Bready pointed out, with other smaller deals included. These moves will focus the company on merchant processing. “We will be better positioned than ever to offer the next generation of technology,” Bready said.
Meanwhile, next up for the Genius program is Genius for enterprise restaurants, a move that will reinforce Global’s position in a highly competitive market for POS technology. That move will come in September, Bready said. All told, with the introduction of the Genius portfolio and the move to get Worldpay, “we will be better positioned than ever to offer the next generation of technology,” Bready said.
Overall, Global logged $2.4 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 2% year-over-year, but up 5% on a constant-currency basis and excluding dispositions. The merchant solutions unit accounted for $1.8 billion in revenue, a 1% rise. On constant-currency basis, again excluding dispositions, the unit’s increase was 5.5%. The issuer unit’s $547 million in revenue was up 4%, or 3.5% on a constant-currency basis.
