Visa said on Monday it would buy former subsidiary Visa Europe for up to $23.3 billion in a deal that will give the world’s largest payments network a chance to cut costs over the long term and raise fees in the second-biggest card market.
The price for the long-anticipated deal was higher than many had expected, but ended a period of strategic uncertainty that had dogged Visa in recent months.
Visa Inc and Visa Europe, a cooperative of European banks with more than 500 million cards, were part of a global bank-owned network until 2007.
Most of the units merged to form Visa Inc, which went public in 2008, leaving Visa Europe as a separate entity.
The deal brings all of Visa’s networks under one roof again, cementing its lead over nearest-rival MasterCard.
Full content: Forbes
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