Vantiv Announces Agreement to Acquire Litle & Co. For $361M

Vantiv

, a leading provider of payment processing services and related technology solutions for merchants and financial institutions of all sizes, announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Litle & Co. for $361 million. Litle & Co. is a leading independent eCommerce payment processor, providing a fully-integrated payments solution for companies that sell goods and services to consumers over the internet and through direct response marketing. The acquisition of Litle & Co. significantly increases Vantiv's capabilities in eCommerce, expands its customer base of online merchants, and enables the delivery of Litle's innovative, best-in-class eCommerce solutions to Vantiv's merchant and financial institution clients. The combined service offering will leverage Vantiv's scale, extensive distribution channels, and support capabilities, to address the evolving payments needs of businesses in multiple channels, and offer merchants a "one-stop" suite of Point-of-Sale, eCommerce and Direct Response payment processing solutions. "eCommerce is one of the fastest growing segments of payments," said Charles Drucker, President and CEO at Vantiv. "As our clients continue to expand their online presence to meet their consumers' demands, they rely on us to meet their payments needs through our integrated processing platform. The acquisition of Litle & Co. will enable us to offer leading, integrated products in high growth markets, allowing our clients to engage with their customers across multiple channels, with better visibility and increased simplicity. Litle & Co. has built a premier eCommerce product in the market, which is supported by an extremely talented leadership team. The combination of our two companies will create differentiation in our product offerings and enable us to rapidly capitalize on market opportunities. We are very excited to work with the Litle team." "Today's agreement represents the beginning of a new chapter in our company's evolution," said Tom Litle, President and CEO of Litle & Co. "By partnering with Vantiv, we are able to accelerate the development and distribution of the value added services Litle & Co. is known for and drive payments intelligence deeper into the operations of the world's leading eCommerce and multi-channel merchants. Our companies share a deep-rooted commitment to exceptional customer service and providing a world class environment for the industry's best talent. By bringing these two companies together we have created a uniquely valuable partner for merchants of all sizes to help navigate the rapidly evolving payments landscape. I look forward to working with Charles and his team to close this transaction and to helping our team make payments intelligence a reality for our customers." Management will provide an additional update during Vantiv's third quarter 2012 financial results conference call on Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 8:00 am ET. The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing (877) 941-1427, or for international callers (480) 629-9664. A replay will be available approximately two hours after the call concludes, and can be accessed by dialing (877) 870-5176, or for international callers (858) 384-5517, and entering the conference ID 4567381. The replay will be available through Thursday, November 8, 2012. A live webcast of the conference call, along with presentation slides, will be available on Vantiv's investor relations website at http://investors.vantiv.com. The transaction is expected to close in late 2012, pending regulatory approvals and customary