North America | Concord EFS to acquire Cash Station

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Concord EFS, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEFT), has reached an agreement to acquire Cash Station, Inc., the seventh-largest EFT network in the U.S. Chicago-based Cash Station will be combined with Concord's MAC network, currently the second-largest EFT network in the U.S. based on the number of switched transactions.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the 2nd quarter of 2000, subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions, and will be accounted for as a pooling of interests transaction.

Cash Station has 645 financial institution members and operates primarily in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin. More than 7,000 ATMs and 6 million debit cards carry the Cash Station brand. Cash Station, Inc. switches more than 15 million transactions per month and drives over 1,600 ATMs for its members.

Switch processing, ATM terminal driving and card authorization services which are currently outsourced by Cash Station to a third-party processor will be converted to Concord operations.

"Acquisition of the Cash Station network will serve to strengthen and expand our MAC network franchise in the Midwest and in Chicago, the nation's third largest metropolitan market, while opening up new opportunities for expansion in contiguous states," said Edward A. Labry III, president of Concord.

"We expect that consolidation among EFT networks will continue, driven by the fact that financial institutions are merging and demanding broad geographic coverage under a single brand," said Stephen S. Cole, Cash Station president and CEO. "The networks that thrive today are those that go beyond simply switching transactions, and offer a wide variety of products and services to their members."

"Cash Station, Inc. has had great success in the markets they serve by investing the Cash Station brand with significant value over the years, and by serving their client base well," said Phil Valvardi, president of the MAC network. "The result is that Cash Station, Inc. will bring with it Chicago's largest financial institutions, many of whom do not have a prior relationship with Concord."

The combined Cash Station and MAC networks will have 55,600 branded ATMs and 48 million cardholders. Maitland, Fla.-based Star Systems, which became the nation's largest EFT network after merging with Honor Technologies in March of 1999, has more than 70,000 ATMs and 79 million cardholders.