Today VISA announced that it has acquired control of
Earthport, the company that has a payments network with banking relationships in 87 countries and is a Ripple partner. The UK listed company was the subject of a
bidding war between VISA and Mastercard. The latter eventually
withdrew and acquired another company Transfast.
The final price paid for Earthport of £247 million ($321.1 million) was almost five times the pre-bid price, an unusually high premium for an acquisition.
Apart from Ripple, the company has numerous high profile clients including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, TransferWise, BNP Paribas and Xoom. Earthport powered Santander’s first Ripple app. But the main appeal to VISA was the 87 foreign banking relationships.
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