Shift4 to acquire Global Blue for $2.5 billion

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The acquisition is priced at $7.50 per common share in cash, representing a 15% premium to Global Blue’s closing share price as of February 14.

Global Blue enables tax-free shopping, dynamic currency conversion, and payments services to more than 400,000 premium retail and hospitality locations.

The acquisition also opens up new opportunities for collaboration with Ant International and Tencent, who remain as shareholders of Global Blue.

“This acquisition continues a bold tradition of introducing transformative capabilities to exceptional customers along with a massive embedded cross-sell opportunity,” says Shift4 president Taylor Lauber. “It fits perfectly in the Shift4 playbook: delivering an enormous volume conversion opportunity while unlocking significant new revenue opportunities and capabilities that open entirely new markets for us. Integrating Global Blue into our unified payments platform positions Shift4 as a leading unified commerce payment provider around the world.”

The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions by Shift4, which recently abandoned plans to sell off its own business after being unimpressed by suitor bids for the publicly-listed company, which has a market valuation of $7 billion.