First Data and iFormation Group Launch eONE Global, Committing Nearly $600
Million in Cash and Assets to Accelerate Emerging Payment Technologies
Strength of Global Payments Leader First Data
Gives eONE Global Companies Access to Significant Distribution Channels
ATLANTA and NEW YORK, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC),
a leading global e-commerce and payment services company, and iFormation Group
today announced the launch of eONE Global LP, a new company created to meet
the growing demand for emerging payment technologies and services and to
accelerate expansion into new markets. The distribution strength of First
Data and iFormation's expertise in building new online businesses immediately
provide eONE Global with a strong strategic advantage. Formed by The Boston
Consulting Group, General Atlantic Partners, LLC and The Goldman Sachs Group,
iFormation Group partners with Global 2000 market leaders to create and
develop new online businesses.
With initial committed assets of approximately $600 million, eONE Global
is positioned for significant growth. First Data is contributing certain
operating businesses as well as existing Internet venture interests and
management, valued at approximately $360 million, to eONE Global for a
75 percent equity interest. iFormation Group is contributing $135 million in
cash and will receive an equity interest of 25 percent in the new company and
a warrant for 1.75 million shares in First Data to further align the
companies' interests. First Data and iFormation together have committed an
additional $100 million in cash, proportionate to their ownership levels, for
future business development.
"eONE Global is a bold step toward executing First Data's global vision of
generating new payment services for merchants, corporations and consumers as
they progress to doing business in the online world," said Ric Duques,
chairman and chief executive officer of First Data Corp. "By quickly creating
a pipeline of emerging payment businesses and products, eONE Global will
accelerate growth in online and wireless commerce -- and thereby enhance First
Data's core businesses. eONE Global will make the exchange of any kind of
payment among consumers, businesses and governments faster, safer and more
reliable."
eONE Global companies and their customers will immediately benefit from
the strength of First Data's significant distribution channels, massive
transaction processing engines, and established relationships in the payments
arena. As the leading online payment processor -- including processing
relationships through its bank alliances with more than 60 percent of the top
100 Net merchants -- First Data today serves more than two million merchant
locations, 1,400 card issuers and millions of consumers through its Western
Union(R) network of more than 90,000 agent locations worldwide.
eONE Global's management will leverage iFormation's expertise in
partnering with Global 2000 market leaders to form, develop and accelerate new
online businesses. iFormation will dedicate an experienced business-building
team to assist eONE Global with strategy, business development, technology
advice and recruiting. In addition, iFormation Group and its founding
partners will use their global reach to provide eONE Global with business
opportunities and partnerships in the emerging payments industries in the
Americas, Europe and Asia.
"First Data will be an advocate and innovator in driving the evolution of
more advanced payment solutions," said Duques. "Creating eONE Global is an
aggressive execution of our stated Internet strategy: enabling our existing
clients for e-commerce, expanding into new markets, and investing in promising
payment-related technologies. We expect eONE Global to quickly multiply the
growth opportunities for First Data in the emerging payments space, bringing
our clients a pipeline of new payment products and services, which will drive
revenue back to our core businesses."
"Together, we will enable eONE Global to be the leading player in new
payment technologies for e-commerce," said David K. Pecaut, president of
iFormation. "eONE Global starts with an exciting combination of operating
businesses and technologies in four electronic payments markets:
business-to-consumer, business-to-business, business-to-government and
person-to-person. While accessing First Data's distribution channels, scale
and infrastructure, eONE Global will operate with the independence,
flexibility and aggressiveness of a start-up," he added.
Senior executives within First Data's core lines of business will work
with eONE Global to bring new payment solutions and technologies to First Data
clients and to ensure that new products are optimally leveraged through the
First Data network. In addition, First Data will continue aggressive product
development and create partnerships within its core businesses, such as
expanding its suite of merchant enablement tools.
Forrester Research projects that business-to-business sales over the Net
will skyrocket to $2.7 trillion in 2004 and that more than half of this trade
will flow through e-marketplaces. They also predict that by 2006, federal,
state and local governments will collect over $602 billion via the Internet, a
market virtually untapped today. Wireless devices will be used to access the
Internet more than PCs with one billion wireless phones by 2002, 40 percent of
which will be Internet enabled.
Garen Staglin, an operating executive who has been managing the
development and growth of information technology businesses for more than
25 years, has been named president and CEO of eONE Global. Duques will serve
as chairman of the board of the new company. Other eONE Global board members
are Pecaut; iFormation Chairman Clifton S. Robbins, partner of General
Atlantic Partners; David Bailis, executive vice president of First Data; and
Charles Russell, First Data board member and former president and CEO of Visa
International. eONE Global will be headquartered in Northern California, with
offices in Menlo Park, Calif.; Melville and New York City, NY; Omaha, Neb.;
Denver; London; and Hong Kong. Additional international offices will be added
in early 2001.
"A new Payment Systems Technologies category is unfolding, with several
'DNA' components that will determine the future of global payments," said
Staglin. "We're moving full speed to establish eONE Global as the premier
source where ideas emerge and payment-related products and businesses
flourish. With preferred access to First Data's unique distribution system,
eONE Global will build off of a position of competitive advantage and
expertise," he explained.
Payments DNA: Building Blocks for Tomorrow's Payment Infrastructure
eONE Global businesses will develop new and emerging technologies as well
as find new applications that expand the functionality and flexibility of
existing payment products, provide greater security and make payments across
boundaries and cultures easier and faster. eONE Global will focus on
building the payments infrastructure for the business-to-business (B2B),
business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-government (B2G), and person-to-person
(P2P) marketplaces. It will create and operate technologies that span these
payment sectors, including wireless and multi-applications smart devices;
stored value, digital cash and micropayments; as well as credit application
and evaluation.
Initial eONE Global operating businesses include:
SurePay LLC: A joint venture with Entrust Technologies, which provides
complete end-to-end payment, trust and security products and services for
Internet B2B, B2C and wireless markets on a global scale. eONE Global has a
majority interest in SurePay.
CashTax: A wholly owned subsidiary of eONE Global, CashTax provides
secure payment services for businesses to pay state and federal taxes
electronically, currently serving two million business taxpayers and
processing 36 million annual payments valued at more than $1 trillion.
Since early 1999, First Data has made strategic investments and
established commercial agreements with a number of payment-related technology
companies. eONE Global will own First Data's stake in many of these partner
companies, including: Yclip, an advertising technology company providing
online promotional tools to consumers; PassLogix, the leader in digital
identity management, specializing in electronic wallet and password
management; Achex, which provides simple and secure Internet payment services
for consumers, small businesses and merchants; and RRE Ventures, a fund which
invests in entrepreneurial information technology companies.
"Our vision for the future of emerging payments technologies is based upon
the practical knowledge of what does and doesn't work in today's economy.
eONE Global will become the leading source for insight and business creation
by providing both entrepreneurs and business partners connections to new
customers and access to First Data's distribution system and to some of the
best minds about the future of payment systems and technologies," Staglin
said.
Management Team
eONE Global's management team brings more than 100 years of combined
experience in payments and related technologies. Joining Staglin are a team
of managing directors including: John Duncan, former First Data Internet
Commerce Group head and MasterCard executive; Scott Loftesness, a payments and
technology expert with experience from Visa International, IBM, Fidelity,
DigiCash and several Silicon Valley start-ups; and Dave Treinen, an electronic
payments veteran with 12 years of experience at First Data, his most recent
position as head of First Data's corporate development and planning group.
The transaction is expected to close within 30-45 days and is subject to
customary closing conditions.
For more information on eONE Global, visit the company's Web site at
www.eoneglobal.com .
About First Data Corp.
Atlanta-based First Data Corp. is a global leader in electronic commerce
and payment services. Serving more than two million merchant locations, more
than 1,400 card issuers and millions of consumers, First Data makes it easier,
faster and more secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services,
using virtually any form of payment: credit, debit, stored-value card or
check at the point-of-sale, over the Internet or by money wire. For more
information, please visit the company's Web site at www.firstdata.com.
About iFormation Group
iFormation Group partners with the largest and most influential companies
in the world -- the Global 2000 -- to form, acquire, develop and accelerate
new online businesses by building upon the strength of those companies'
existing offline assets. The company is a partnership formed by The Boston
Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG), General Atlantic Partners, LLC, and The Goldman
Sachs Group. iFormation Group's management and network of resources generates
value for Global 2000 companies by emphasizing speed to market, core business
development and best-of-breed technology resources. Powered by the global
reach and complementary resources and expertise of BCG, General Atlantic and
Goldman Sachs, iFormation Group's mission is to be the preferred partner of
Global 2000 companies seeking to leverage their offline capabilities into
online businesses, and to be the preferred partner of newly-formed companies
seeking to serve Global 2000 companies in a similar way.
Notice to Investors, Prospective Investors and the Investment Community
Cautionary Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
In passing the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the
"Reform Act"), Congress encouraged public companies to make "forward-looking
statements" by creating a safe-harbor to protect companies from securities law
liability in connection with forward-looking statements. First Data
Corporation ("FDC") intends to qualify both its written and oral
forward-looking statements for protection under the Reform Act. To qualify
oral forward-looking statements for protection under the Reform Act, a readily
available written document must identify important factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking
statements. FDC provides the following information in connection with its
continuing effort to qualify forward-looking statements for the safe harbor
protection of the Reform Act. Important factors which could impact the
Company's forward-looking statements concerning the prospects of its newly
formed eONE Global business include the following:
* As an affiliate of FDC, eONE Global is subject to restrictions on its
ability to compete in certain business lines.
* If eONE Global ceases to be an FDC affiliate, it will no longer have
the ability to purchase goods and services pursuant to various
enterprise-wide agreements, including software license agreements,
which could cause eONE Global's costs to increase.
* eONE Global's access and leverage of FDC's distribution channel may
prove to be less beneficial than anticipated. Anticipated benefits from
the involvement of iFormation Group ("IFG") and its partner companies
may prove to be less valuable than expected.
* eONE Global may not be able to attract and retain the necessary
executive and technical talent to reach its goals.
* eONE Global may select payment technologies for development and
commercialization that do not gain broad market acceptance.
* Notwithstanding that FDC owns a majority of the interest in eONE
Global, IFG has significant blocking rights with respect to actions of
* eONE Global that it could exercise to stop eONE Global from pursuing
opportunities favored by eONE Global and FDC.
* Neither FDC nor eONE Global are prohibited from competing with one
another and if they were to offer competing products or services FDC
would be under no obligation to provide eONE Global with access to
FDC's distribution channels for that product.
* Beyond the $100 million aggregate capital commitment of FDC and IFG,
eONE Global has no assurance of access to additional capital to
implement its business plans.
* Success of the eONE Global business will require successful management
of the potential both for patent protection and patent liability in the
context of rapidly developing legal framework for expansive software
patent protection.
Forward-looking statements express expectations of future events. All
forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on
various expectations and assumptions concerning future events and they are
subject to numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could
cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected. Due
to these inherent uncertainties, the investment community is urged not to
place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. In addition, FDC
undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to
reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events, or
changes to projections over time. "Forward-looking statements" can be
identified by use of words such as "expect", "estimate", "project",
"forecast", "anticipate", "plan" and similar expressions.
Two conference calls will be held today for the investment community and
media and research analysts, respectively. Both calls will be led by Ric
Duques, chairman and CEO of First Data and chairman of the board of eONE
Global; Garen Staglin, President and CEO of eONE Global; and David Pecaut,
President of iFormation Group. The First Data Executive Committee will
participate on the investor call only. Following is the dial-in information
for both calls:
8:30 A.M. ET INVESTMENT COMMUNITY CALL:
Conference Call #: 1-800-857-3771 or 712-271-0902. Passcode: FDC
* INVESTMENT COMMUNITY REPLAY: A replay of the investor call will be
available immediately following the call, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET
through October 13th at 5:00 p.m. ET. To listen to the replay, call
800-759-7994 or 402-998-1657. No pass code is necessary.
11 A.M. ET MEDIA AND RESEARCH ANALYST CALL/WEBCAST:
Conference Call #: 1-888-391-6754 or 712-271-3642. Passcode: eONE Global
Or media and research analysts can visit
videonewswire.com
* MEDIA AND RESEARCH ANALYST REPLAY: A replay of the media call will be
available immediately following the call for 24 hours. No pass code is
necessary.
SOURCE First Data Corp.
-0- 10/09/2000
/CONTACT: Media Relations, Caroline Hoke of eONE Global/First Data,
770-857-7178, or choke@eoneglobal.com; or Investor Relations, Barbara Marxer
of First Data, 770-857-7118, or barbara.marxer@firstdatacorp.com; or Media
Relations, Caroline Gentile of Kekst and Company, 212-521-4800, or
caroline-gentile@kekst.com; or Julian Goldsmith of Ogilvy Public Relations,
+44-207-345-3064, or julian.goldsmith@ogilvypr.com, both for iFormation Group/
/Web site: firstdata.com
eoneglobal.com
(FDC)
CO: First Data Corp.; iFormation Group; eONE Global
ST: Georgia, New York
IN: CPR MLM FIN
SU: PDT
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