The auction of Merchant e-Solutions is one of the few financial technology deals still racing to get done before the end of the year.
Merchant e-Solutions is drawing interest from strategics including Global Payments and Intuit, two sources told peHub.com, a sister Web site to Buyouts, although a third source, a banker, said, “Global Payments is unlikely to buy Merchant e-Solutions given the high price.” Cielo, the Brazilian payment processor, is also believed to be looking at Merchant e-Solutions, a different person said.
It’s not clear whether the private equity sector is still involved in the auction. One source said that buyout shops opted out of the auction due to Merchant e-Solutions’s high price tag. In October, the payment processor, which is backed by
Former executives of BA Merchant Services, a unit of Bank of America, founded Merchant e-Solutions in 2000. Sharif Bayyari, Merchant e-Solutions’s current president, CEO and chairman, was president and CEO of BA Merchant Services. Jim Aviles, current COO of Merchant e-Solutions, was a senior vice president at BA Merchant Services.
Bayyari owns a majority of Merchant e-Solutions. “Sharif always had very outrageous price expectations,” the banker said. “I don’t think the growth rate supports what he’s asking.”
High price expectations have scuttled other financial technology deals this year. In the fall,
Officials for Merchant e-Solutions, Cielo and Global Payments couldn’t be reached by deadline for comment. Intuit declined comment.
Luisa Beltran is a senior writer for peHub, a sister Web site of Buyouts.