Visa, Plaid call off $5.3B deal
U.S. government lawsuit aimed at stopping the proposed transaction on antitrust grounds
Visa and financial technology company Plaid said on Tuesday that they would terminate their $5.3 billion merger agreement following a U.S. government lawsuit aimed at stopping the proposed transaction on antitrust grounds.
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The U.S. Justice Department had sued to stop the deal in November, saying that Visa was a "a monopolist in online debit transactions" and that the proposed acquisition "would eliminate a nascent competitive threat" to that monopoly.
The deal, which was proposed in January 2020, was scrapped to avoid protracted litigation, said Al Kelly, chairman and CEO of Visa Inc.
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"We are confident we would have prevailed in court as Plaid's capabilities are complementary to Visa's, not competitive," he added.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V | VISA INC. | 312.80 | +2.87 | +0.93% |
Visa said in January it had agreed to buy the privately held startup Plaid in a $5.3 billion deal aimed at boosting the payments giant's access to the booming financial technology sector.
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(Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington and Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Rosalba O'Brien)