Hypercom was an Australian company which was a pioneer of electronic payment processing hardware and software. It was acquired by rival

VeriFone Verifone is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida. Verifone provides technology for electronic payment transactions and value-added services at the point-of-sale. Verifone sells merchant-operated, consum ...

in 2011.

History

Hypercom was founded by Hungarian born George Wallner, David Saul and Leslie Fritz in Sydney Australia in 1978. It went on to dominate the south pacific region in terms of payment terminals. In 1988 the company signed a deal with

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

to provide its terminals to them in the US. To consolidate the deal, Hypercom moved its head office from Australia to Arizona in the US. It then faced head to head competition with

on its home market. On April 4, 2011, Ingenico announced its agreement to acquire Hypercom's U.S. Payment Systems Business prior to the close of the VeriFone acquisition On the same day it announced that its UK and Spanish operations would be sold separately to a private investment company and this business was renamed as Spire Payments. On May 12, 2011, The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed acquisition of Hypercom by VeriFone saying the planned sale of Hypercom's U.S. POS terminal business to Ingenico does not resolve the antitrust concerns On August 4, 2011, VeriFone announced its completion of the acquisition of Hypercom U.S. business after reaching a settlement with antitrust regulators to sell Hypercom's U.S. payment systems business to an entity sponsored by investment firm Gores Group LLC Simultaneously, KleinPartners Capital announced the acquisition of Hypercom Spain S.A. and Hypercom UK, with Kazem Aminaee, the former President of Hypercom Europe, Middle East, and Africa, forming Spire Payments On September 30, 2011, Hypercom US announced it formally changed its corporate name to Equinox Payments, LLC.

References

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External links

Official Equinox Payments website (formerly Hypercom)

Funding Universe.com: "A history of Hypercom through 1998"
1978 establishments in Australia 2011 disestablishments in Arizona Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Defunct software companies of the United States Point of sale companies Financial services companies established in 1978 Financial services companies disestablished in 2011 Manufacturing companies established in 1978 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2011 2011 mergers and acquisitions Defunct manufacturing companies based in Arizona