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In an effort to boost its electronic bill-payment offerings, payments-technology provider ACI Worldwide Inc. on Thursday announced its second recent acquisition from The Western Union Co., this one of mobile bill-presentment provider Walletron Inc.
Today’s announcement came at the same time Naples, Fla.-based ACI said it will complete its previously announced, $750 million cash acquisition of Western Union’s Speedpay bill-pay business today.
Neither ACI nor Western Union disclosed terms of the Walletron sale, but ACI said Walletron will not be material to its financial results. Western Union reported in December 2016 that it had made an unspecified “strategic investment” in Ardmore, Pa.-based Walletron. That announcement came a few months after the two companies paired up to bring Walletron’s moBills mobile bill-presentment service to Speedpay’s biller clients.
ACI Worldwide says Walletron is used by more than 6 million consumers in more than 100 countries. Walletron works on Apple Inc.’s mobile devices via the Apple Wallet, and on Android devices through Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay wallet. Walletron’s network of billing and payment partners manages more than 12 billion bills, according to ACI.
Walletron and ACI are no strangers to each other. Last October they announced a deal enabling customers of ACI’s bill-pay clients to view bills from smart-phone wallets, and to make payments within two clicks using ACI’s UP Bill Payment service. And Walletron today powers the mobile bill-presentment feature for several Speedpay customers, according to ACI.
“As more consumers utilize mobile devices to view and pay bills, organizations must be able to present bills in a mobile-friendly way,” ACI Worldwide executive vice president Sanjay Gupta said in a news release. “The combination of ACI’s bill-payments platform and Walletron’s next-generation mobile-wallet billing technology delivers consumers a digital bill-pay experience unmatched in the industry.”
Separately, ACI announced first-quarter results that included a $26 million loss, up from a $19.4 million loss a year earlier. Revenues fell 2% to $205.9 million from $209.3 million in 2018’s first quarter.
