Metavante Corporation is to buy the North American Internet banking and brokerage units of Brokat Technologies. The German company is also losing its chief executive, Stefan Roever, who has quit to head up a new First Data unit which has made an offer to buy Brokat's mobile Internet business.
Metavante, a unit of Wisconsin bank Marshall & Ilsley, is to pay $19.5 million in cash for the Brokat business unit.
Michael Janssen, chief financial officer of Brokat, states: "The divestiture of our US-based financial applications business reflects a concerted effort to re-focus Brokat on our core geographic markets and strengthen our balance sheet."
The acqusition follows an ASP alliance struck between Brokat and Metavante in May. Metavante now plans to consolidate a number of its electronic banking products onto the Brokat technology platform.
"In addition, we are acquiring the assets of Brokat Technologies AFS, Inc., which will allow our electronic banking clients and securities firms to offer online brokerage services, including mobile access to trading and account inquiry, to their customers," says Joseph Delgadillo, Metavante president and chief executive officer.
Existing Brokat customers of the acquired businesses include Bank of America, Bank of Hawaii, Charter One, Union Bank of California, United California Bank, Wells Fargo, and 69 brokerage clients including Wall Street Access, a New York Stock Exchange brokerage member firm.
The troubled German firm is also offloading its mobile business division to First Data subsidiary eONE Global. The deal is valued at EUR42 million and is expected to be completed by November.
eONE Global's strategy is to initially deliver wallet solutions through which consumers can register all their credit and bank account information one time, not for each new transaction. In addition, eONE Global's new m-commerce business unit will act as the settlement and clearinghouse between telecommunications operators and merchants for mobile payments.
"We will initially focus on facilitating digital content micropayments and Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) payments. We believe this strategy will enable consumers to gradually become comfortable with this emerging technology," says John Duncan, managing director of eONE Global.
eONE Global plans to expand its offering in the mobile commerce area during the first half of 2002 by facilitating person-to-person payments via the phone and point-of-sale macropayments, says Duncan.
Brokat CEO Stefan Roever will assume the role of CEO of the new eONE Global mobile payments company. Approximately 400 Brokat employees will also move to eONE Global, which will have offices in Germany, London, the United States and Asia Pacific.