Columbia Capital Corp. to Acquire FiScrip, Inc.
CLCK Enters Electronic Benefits Processing Market
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Columbia Capital Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: CLCK - news) announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire FiScrip, Inc., from the majority shareholders of CLCK, Glenn Gallant and Douglas Baetz. Gallant and Baetz will receive additional shares in CLCK, in return for 100% of the stock in FiScrip. The final terms for the acquisition will be determined by a fairness opinion. Final approval of the purchase will require unanimous consent of the independent Directors of the Company.
FiScrip is one of only five certified processors for the federal government's new Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program. FiScrip provides ATM services for 1,200 merchants and, during the four months that it has been certified as an EBT processor, it has signed up 1089 merchants to use its EBT processing services. FiScrip's current EBT merchants generate over 130,000 transactions per month. FiScrip markets its debit and ATM services through a national network of Independent Sales and Service Organizations.
FiScrip's president, Ron Rowe stated, ''During this testing period, we've been increasing our merchant base at the rate of 400 to 500 merchants a month. Next month, we will begin our national roll-out of the EBT product through our national sales network.''
Columbia's president, Ken Klotz said, ''The EBT market is about to explode and the addition of FiScrip's EBT, Debit and ATM capabilities to the Company will allow CLCK to become a major participant in that market.''
At present, only 565,000 merchants are eligible for electronic food stamp processing. According to Bob Kerr, Manager of EBT Processor Relationship for Lockheed Martin IMS Corporation, ''Seventeen million recipients are eligible for electronic food stamp processing and an additional sixteen million are eligible for government entitlement payments. Approximately twenty percent are being processed electronically today.''
The federal government has decided to eliminate the paper processing for all government entitlements, including Social Security and Supplement Security income, by October 2002. By that time, three to five million businesses in the United States will accept EBT cards with 100 million recipients receiving EBT benefits, not including Federal and State payrolls, which will eliminate paper checks by January 1, 2003. FiScrip is well positioned to gain major market share when its debit, ATM and EBT capability is combined with the resources of Columbia Capital Corp.
All transactions, in the future, will be either direct deposit or through the use of a debit card. Klotz stated, ''The market is huge, and we intend to be a major player.'' Klotz stated that, due to uncertainties of the EBT roll- out schedule, he would not offer any projections as to additional revenue that the acquisition of FiScrip might add to CLCK. At present, FICI provides certain processing and settlement services for FiScrip.
Columbia Capital Corp. operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary, First Independent Computers, Inc., which is a multi-faceted information and transaction processing service organization. The services provided by the Company include credit and debit card processing, transaction processing for the health care industry, bank and financial services processing and document management and distribution services. The Company concentrates on a niche market, consisting of small to medium-sized financial institutions, and health care providers that have not achieved the economies of scale to operate their own in-house programs and systems.
Forward-looking statements in this press release are necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, which may affect the accuracy of such statements. Such risks may include any delays in the addition of business or loss of existing customers. For a full discussion of such risks, please refer to the Company's Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1997 and subsequent filings. The company undertakes no obligation to update such factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to the forward- looking statements contained herein.
SOURCE: Columbia Capital Corp. |
