It looks like a good deal to me......as long as they breakeven by 12/98 I don't care.
HWP...looks like the cumbersome system here(Verifone's software system, by comparison, requires merchants to use its proprietary hardware devices.)I think we all have enough devices.
Proprietary hardware devices just gives HWP something to do...because they''ve lost the PC war. Could be a nut cut trick....between proprietary devices and a PC...PC will win hands down, everybodies got one....
As for being #1, don't think so....but a player none the less.
Overall I like it.....but from $10 3/8 it all looks good.....eh Auggie Doggie?
Tuesday March 17, 6:56 pm Eastern Time
Cybercash agrees to acquire ICVerify
RESTON, Va., March 17 (Reuters) - CyberCash Inc and venture-backed ICVerify Inc said they had agreed to merge in a deal in which ICVerify shareholders will receive $16 million in cash and 2.3 million CyberCash common shares.
The two electronic commerce companies said consummation of the deal is subject to negotiation of a binding deal and certain other conditions.
Based on the price of Cybercash stock at the close of trading Tuesday, the value of the deal's stock portion would be about $41.1 million, making the deal's total value worth roughly $57 million.
In a statement, the companies said that after completion of the merger, which is expected to occur in the second quarter of 1998, ICVerify will become a wholly owned unit of CyberCash.
They said F. Thomas Alden, ICVerify's president and chief executive officer, will remain in those roles once ICVerify becomes a unit of CyberCash. He also will serve as an executive vice president of CyberCash.
Steve Elefant, ICVerify co-founder and chairman, will become CyberCash vice chairman. Eric Buchbinder, the other co-founder, will become senior vice president, advanced technology.
CyberCash was an early pioneer in developing technology and services to allow merchants to accept payments over the Internet, a market that has been slow to take off. The company reported revenues of just $4.5 million last year.
As a result, the company has begun to broaden its offerings to include merchants in the mail order and retail storefront world.
By contrast, Oakland, Calif.-based ICVerify has focused mainly on developing payment software for merchants with physical, as opposed to cyberspace, locations.
ICVerify competes with Hewlett-Packard Co's (HWP - news) Verifone unit, the world's dominant supplier of electronic payment systems to store retailers, by offering software that, in effect, transforms personal computers into cash registers.
Verifone's software system, by comparison, requires merchants to use its proprietary hardware devices.
In an interview, executives of the two companies said the merger would focus on developing the potential of open, software-based payment systems that run on PCs and are capable of transmitting data over networks, including the Internet.
The combined firm will control well over half of the emerging market for secure Internet payment systems, they said.
The combined company will continue to offer the separate product lines of the two companies, they said. However, the company plans to tightly integrate the CyberCash's Internet offerings with ICVerify's products, the officials said.
The companies said the merged companies will look to partner with banks seeking to offer Internet payment capabilities to their customers.
They said no layoffs were planned. CyberCash has 230 employees. ICVerify has 100. A handful of CyberCash staff in Redwood City, Calif., will be asked to relocate to ICVerify's headquarters in Oakland.
CyberCash Chief Executive Officer Bill Melton said the deal requires no shareholder approval. He said the CyberCash board had indicated its informal backing for the deal and will be asked to vote on the final deal in May, when the merger is expected to close.
He said that any impact of the merger on CyberCash earnings would be minimal. ''We don't anticipate that it will have much of an impact,'' he said in response to a question about potential dilution.
''We have built the business on kind of an undying faith that electronic commerce would take off,'' Melton said.
Pointing to the latest signs that commerce over the Internet is gaining acceptance in the mainstream business world, Melton said that, ''By the time we get to the end of this year, we think we will have hit the take-off stage.''
CyberCash closed at 17-5/8, up 1-15/16 on the day Tuesday |
