Mercury Payment Systems Attracts Strategic Growth Investment From Silver Lake Partners

DURANGO, Colo. and NEW YORK, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercury Payment Systems, one of the fastest-growing payment processing companies in North America, and Silver Lake, the world's largest technology investment firm, today jointly announced that Silver Lake will make a strategic growth investment in Mercury and acquire approximately 60% of the Colorado-based business.

Mercury's strategy of partnering with point-of-sale (POS) developers and resellers to provide merchants with integrated payment solutions has driven significant growth across a range of sectors, including food and beverage, hospitality, retail, grocery, pharmacy and healthcare. Mercury now ranks among the top five largest non-bank merchant acquirers in the U.S. by number of transactions.

"Silver Lake Partners' investment is a strong vote of confidence and will help us achieve continued growth and success," said Matt Taylor, the company's Chief Executive Officer, who will continue in his current role. "Silver Lake's technology investing expertise and industry relationships will support our strategy of deploying leading solutions for our POS developer and reseller partners, as well as the merchants we serve throughout the United States and Canada."

Mercury founders Marc Katz and Jeffrey Katz, and existing investor Larry Stone, will collectively retain approximately 40% ownership in the company. They also will continue to serve on its board of directors and help guide Mercury's strategy.

Mike Bingle, Managing Director of Silver Lake, said Mercury was poised for continued success. "In less than a decade, Mercury has evolved from a start-up to the clear leader in integrated payments," Bingle observed. "We look forward to working with CEO Matt Taylor, the company's founders and its talented employees as Mercury continues its impressive growth trajectory."

"Mercury's momentum has been driven by both technology and business model innovation," added Silver Lake Managing Director Joe Osnoss. "While many merchant acquirers rely only on direct sales forces, Mercury has created a unique value-added network of POS developers, resellers and merchants who all benefit from the company's solutions. Silver Lake's investment is designed to reinforce and extend this competitive differentiation."

Financial Technology Partners LP and FTP Securities LLC ("FT Partners"), a San Francisco-based investment banking firm, served as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Mercury and its Board of Directors on the transaction.

About Mercury Payment Systems

Mercury Payment Systems is an integrated transaction processing company created to enhance point-of-sale systems by offering credit, debit, check, gift card and loyalty processing. Mercury's integrated Internet protocol (IP) or dial-up processing solutions are fast, reliable and affordable. Resellers can leverage the reliability and enhanced efficiency of integrated payment processing to increase productivity and customer satisfaction. Mercury Payment Systems helps resellers increase their opportunities with reseller support and superior technology. For more information call 800-846-4472 or go to www.MercuryPay.com.

About Silver Lake

Silver Lake is the leading investment firm focused on investments in technology, technology-enabled, and related growth industries. Silver Lake's mission is to function as a value-added partner to the management teams of the world's leading technology franchises. Its current and former portfolio companies include technology industry leaders such as Ameritrade, Avago, Avaya, Business Objects, Gartner, Gerson Lehrman Group, Instinet, Intelsat, NASDAQ OMX, Sabre Holdings, Serena Software, Skype, SunGard Data Systems and UGS. For more information, please visit www.silverlake.com.

About Financial Technology Partners

Financial Technology Partners LP and FTP Securities LLC (together, FT Partners) is the only investment banking firm focused exclusively on providing strategic and financial advisory services to CEOs in the dynamic financial services and technology sector.  The firm offers strategic advisory services in mission-critical transactions including mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, LBOs, refinancing, recapitalizations and private capital raisings.  FT Partners and Steve McLaughlin were recognized by The M&A Advisor as "Dealmaker of the Year" annually in 2009 through 2006 and the firm was named "Investment Banking Firm of the Year" in 2004 and 2006. Any securities related transactions contemplated by or acted upon hereunder are conducted by FTP Securities LLC, a FINRA broker-dealer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Technology Partners LP.  For more information, please visit www.ftpartners.com.

SOURCE Mercury Payment Systems; Silver Lake