With the recent news that Global Payments will be acquiring Worldpay from FIS and divesting its issuer solutions back to FIS, merchants may be wondering what this means for them. This acquisition reinforces the movement toward payment industry consolidation as companies like Global Payments look to create unified, global solutions and enhance their payment processing capabilities. The acquisition is not expected to be officially complete until the first half of 2026. After that, based on similar payments industry merger and acquisition activity in the past, the integration of the two companies, corresponding changes and product platform roadmaps will unfold over the next several years. At this point, it’s hard to say what changes will occur across the two companies and their product sets. Despite the longer anticipated timeline, merchants should start thinking now about what they need to do to prepare for potential changes that may impact them in the future. 

Don’t Panic, Just Prepare Now

Anytime an acquisition of a core business platform occurs, preparing early and keeping in lockstep communication with your provider is the best way to ensure steady operations are maintained once any changes to the products or services may occur. Like similar acquisitions from the past, Worldpay or Global Payments may provide a date for when any platform conversions need to be completed but there is no certainty around when any established timelines would be announced.  

Clint Cady, Partner at W. Capra opined, “The sooner you understand how the acquisition may affect your business, the easier it will be to adjust to any changes. For Worldpay and Global Payments merchants, maintaining regular communication with your account representative will ensure your organization stays informed about the latest updates to services, products, pricing, staffing, contracts and more. Cost synergies are expected to be created once the acquisition finalizes and staying in contact should mitigate any surprises that may affect your business directly.  Furthermore, asking the right questions early and often will help you understand how this may dovetail with your payment and technology roadmaps as platform changes are planned.” 

Jim DuBoyce, Partner at W. Capra added, “This acquisition will remove another competitor among the major processors, and it will affect the payments market and reduce the number of leading companies available for industries like convenience and retail fuel. However, the combination of Global Payments and Worldpay brings together the best solutions for small-to-medium businesses and enterprises and potentially unlocks new capabilities for both existing Worldpay and Global Payments merchants.” 

How W. Capra Can Help

Erika Curtis, Vice President of Payments Consulting at W. Capra continued, “To minimize potential disruption to your business, continued communication is required as it allows you to be proactive in inquiring about new services and products that could be beneficial to your organization in the short- or long-term. Organizations should be thinking about how any of these changes and opportunities fit into their technology roadmap and payment strategy. This transition period may also provide a good excuse to evaluate your payment customer experience. We often work alongside our clients and join these conversations so that clients can leverage the knowledge within W. Capra of myriad processors and industry insights to their benefit and ensure they are asking the right questions.  It’s difficult for clients to keep aware of the volume of changes and information outside of their firm.” 

As merchants think about how to prepare for both organizational changes and the opportunity for enhanced services, partnering with a third-party organization that has worked with both Worldpay and Global Payments like W. Capra will keep your team ready to take any actions needed as the acquisition and integration move forward. With the long timeline, there’s no need to panic right now. We can help ensure you are protecting and potentially improving your business in the meantime. 

Acting as advocates for our clients, W. Capra helps ensure your organization’s best interests are kept in mind as conversations with your account rep continue and changes to contracts, pricing, or access to new capabilities arise. W. Capra can help facilitate Q&A sessions with your supplier to help ensure you are asking the right questions that will protect your business as well as evaluating your current payment processing contracts and cost of payment acceptance to keep you prepared should future changes due to the acquisition impact your payment and retail technology ecosystem. 

Clint Cady, Jim DuBoyce, and Erika Curtis are adept at leading W. Capra clients in their business initiatives related to payments and retail technology. For further discussion, contact Clint at ccady@wcapra.com, Jim at jduboyce@wcapra.com, and Erika at ecurtis@wcapra.com. 

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