Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Global Payments
An Atlanta merchant acquirer that grew by acquisition from a 2001 spin-off of National Data Corporation's payments unit into one of the largest card-acceptance companies in the world. It bought Heartland Payment Systems (2016), whose 2008 data breach was one of the largest in payments history, and merged with card-issuing processor TSYS (2019). Then, in a three-way deal closed in January 2026, it sold the TSYS issuer business to FIS and bought Worldpay from FIS and private-equity firm GTCR. That left a "pure-play" merchant company serving more than 6 million merchant locations and ~$3.7tn of annual payment volume. Its story is the long arc of US payments consolidation: buying scale, software and distribution, then living with integration debt, security failures and shareholders who doubted the deals.
At a glance
- Founded
- Spun off from National Data Corporation (NDC) on January 31, 2001 (NDC's payments business dated to the late 1960s); HQ Atlanta, Georgia
- Founders / early leaders
- Paul Garcia (first CEO, 1999–2013 as head of the unit and the company; verify start date); Jeff Sloan (CEO 2013–May 2023); Cameron Bready (CEO from June 1, 2023)
- Headquarters
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Ownership / structure
- Public company (NYSE: GPN); after the Worldpay closing, GTCR and other former Worldpay holders owned ~15.45% (43.3m shares, staged lock-up to mid-2027); Elliott Investment Management an activist holder since 2025
- Leadership (2026)
- Cameron Bready, chairman and CEO (verify chair title); Josh Whipple, CFO (succeeded Paul Todd, who left for Fiserv in 2025)
- Segments / products
- From 2026: Enterprise, Platforms (integrated and embedded payments for software companies) and Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (Genius point-of-sale, Heartland and Worldpay SMB). Until January 2026 also Issuer Solutions (TSYS card processing) and, until 2023, Netspend consumer prepaid
- Scale
- >6 million merchant locations, ~$3.7tn payment volume, ~94bn transactions a year, >175 countries (company, January 2026); ~26,000 employees at end-2025 including Issuer Solutions (10-K)
- Revenue and profit
- 2025 adjusted net revenue ~$9.32bn, adjusted EPS $12.22 (company, February 18, 2026; basis excludes Issuer Solutions as discontinued — verify). Q2 2026 GAAP revenue ~$3.32bn, adjusted net revenue ~$3.16bn (normalized growth ~4%), adjusted EPS $3.46; 2026 adjusted EPS guidance cut to $13.60–13.80 from $13.80–14.00 (company, August 2026)
- Capital / regulatory status
- Not a bank; relies on sponsor banks for card-network membership in the US; regulated through network rules (Visa, Mastercard), PCI DSS, state money-transmitter rules for some products, the FTC and CFPB (consumer products), and foreign regulators (FCA, Central Bank of Ireland and others for Worldpay)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Spin-off from NDC (2001); Heartland's 2008 breach (2009 disclosure), told from GPN's later ownership; GPN's own 2012 breach and Visa delisting; Heartland acquisition (2016); Netspend's FTC case (2016–17) and later sale (agreed 2022); TSYS merger (2019); EVO and the Bready reset (2023); the Worldpay–Issuer Solutions swap and Elliott activism (2025–26)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2001
Spin Off From National Data Corporation
Spin-off
2008
Heartland Breach
Failure (data breach) / regulatory and network settlements
2012
Data Breach and Visa Delisting
Failure (data breach)
2016
Heartland Acquisition
Acquisition
2016
Netspend FTC Settlement
Regulatory settlement / divestiture
2019
TSYS Merger
Merger (all-stock "merger of equals", GPN as legal acquirer)
2023
EVO Bready and Portfolio Reset
Acquisition / restructuring (CEO succession and divestitures)
2025
Worldpay Issuer Solutions Swap and Elliott
Acquisition / divestiture (three-way transaction)