With Its Spree Commerce Buy, First Data Aims To Bolster Its Online Tech Foundations

Payment processor First Data Corp. has acquired Spree Commerce, a provider of open-source software for 45,000 e-commerce storefronts. The addition of Bethesda, Md.-based Spree could bolster First Data as it competes with processors and tech providers for more business in the fast-growing world of online retailing.

“Spree is at the forefront of e-commerce software development, and we are excited to incorporate their team into the First Data family,” Dan Charron, head of global business solutions at First Data,” said in a statement e-mailed to Digital Transactions News. “With its deep subject-matter expertise and successful open-source software development, Spree will help First Data build stronger connections to the developer community and bolster our ability to deliver unrivaled e-commerce solutions to businesses around the world.”

Neither Atlanta-based First Data nor Spree Commerce disclosed the purchase price or stated when the transaction occurred. Spree quietly disclosed the acquisition Friday in a post on its blog. In the post, Spree co-founder and chief executive Sean Schofield said the company’s office near Washington, D.C., would remain open.

“We will continue to focus on technology solutions related to e-commerce,” Schofield wrote. “First Data has a worldwide distribution network with over 6 million business locations. We are already hard at work on developing new products for First Data based on Spree. We will be taking advantage of First Data’s financial and technical resources to bring the Spree technology to a worldwide audience.”

With open-source code, applications can be easily altered for specific business needs, including the provisioning of payment services and other features desired by Web-based merchants. Technology researcher George Peabody at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Glenbrook Partners says the addition of Spree Commerce helps ensure that First Data has the resources online retailers want.

“Payments are getting embedded deeper into transactions all the time,” Peabody tells Digital Transactions News by email. “Open-source code deepens the pool of developers who might want to embed the payment function into the unique flow of their particular transactions. That could create a wide band of new transactions or a shift from one channel to the [developer’s] software. In either case, First Data wants to be the upstream provider.”

As it comes under First Data’s wing, however, Spree Commerce is trimming some of its operations. The company plans to shutter its Wombat e-commerce platform for integrating back-end systems, according to TechCrunch. Citing a company memo, the Silicon Valley news service said Spree will end Wombat next March 31 to “focus on other strategic opportunities.”