ATLANTA—Two payments processors that have both been victimized by data breaches are looking to combine.
Atlanta-based Global Payments said it intends to purchase Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. for $4.3 billion. If the deal is approved, it would close by May 31, 2016.
In January of 2009, Heartland acknowledged its systems had been breached and that approximately 130 million debit and credit card accounts had been compromised. It estimated the cost of the breach to the company of $150 million.
Then, in April of 2012 Heartland announced it had suffered a data breach involving an estimated 1.5 million credit and debit cards, a breach that cost it $94 million in related costs.
Should the deal go through, Heartland would serve approximately 2.5 million merchants around the world and the company would represent about 5% of global transactions processed each year.