Paysafe

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Paysafe Group PLC

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1999
Seat Douglas , Isle of Man
management Joel Leonoff, President & Chief Executive Officer
Number of employees 1578 (December 31, 2015)
sales £ 613 million (2015)
Branch Payment services
Website www.paysafe.com

Paysafe Group PLC (until November 2015 Optimal Payments , formerly Neovia Financial ) is a payment service provider based on the Isle of Man in the United Kingdom. It offers payment services in the area of ​​processing and storage of value ( e-wallet ) directly under the Paysafe brand or under subsidiary brands such as paysafecard , Skrill and Neteller . The original eponymous company Paysafecard was founded in 2000 and was initially taken over by Skrill and finally, in August 2015, by the then Optimal Payments , which in turn was renamed Paysafe Group in November 2015 . In December 2017, the Paysafe Group was acquired by Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners . This takeover also meant the end of the former stock exchange listing.

history

Origin as Neteller

The company was founded in 1999 by Stephen Lawrence in Calgary / Canada under the name Neteller as an e-wallet. The company relocated to the United Kingdom (Isle of Man) in 2004 and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange in the AIM segment since April 2004 , having raised GBP 35m in capital through the IPO ; the initial capitalization at the issue price was GBP 240 million. In October 2005 the payment platform Netbanx, founded in 1996, was purchased.

Neteller was originally focused on processing payments to gaming providers. Around 80% of the larger providers used the Neteller service and almost 95% of the turnover came from transfers to gaming providers, mainly from customers in the USA. In January 2007, Stephen Lawrence, founder of Neteller, and another former executive were arrested and charged with money laundering for illegal gambling in the United States, and Neteller was forced to withdraw from the US market, causing a sharp drop in sales and profits led. Billed fee revenue decreased from $ 239 million in 2006 to $ 61 million in 2010.

The original company name Neteller was changed to Neovia Financial in November 2008 , and after purchasing a Canadian payment platform Optimal Payments in January 2011 , Neovia Financial changed its name to Optimal Payments . In August 2011, the founder and former CEO of the purchased Optimal Payments, Joel Leonoff, took over the management of the entire group.

Paysafecard and Skrill

At the same time, paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG was founded in Vienna in March 2000 with the intention of developing a prepaid payment method for the Internet. From September 2000 paysafecard was available as a means of payment in Austria, and at the end of May 2001 also in Germany. In 2006 paysafecard started operations in Great Britain, Spain, Greece, Slovenia and Slovakia. In 2007, the number of transactions carried out with paysafecard exceeded 10 million for the first time.

In 2008 the British subsidiary received a license from the regulatory authority, FSA , as an e-money institution with validity throughout the EU. In the following years paysafecard started using this license in other European countries. Also in 2008, the Swiss subsidiary received a license from the Swiss Financial Market Authority (Finma) . This license is used for international expansion outside the EU. In August 2011, Paysafecard took over its Dutch competitor Wallie .

In February 2013, paysafecard was acquired from the British provider Skrill for EUR 140 million . In 2011, Skrill had already taken over the Austrian company payolution , a service provider for online shops that offers payment methods for purchase on account and payment in installments , shortly after its launch. Skrill, paysafecard and payolution were henceforth the brands of the Skrill Group . In November 2014, Skrill also bought British competitor Ukash and merged it with paysafecard.

Creation of the Paysafe Group

Skrill was taken over in August 2015 by the Optimal Payments group, which is a direct competitor to Skrill with Neteller. In November 2015, the Optimal Payments Group carried out an extensive rebranding to the Paysafe Group . Since then, Paysafecard has been a subsidiary of the Paysafe Group alongside Neteller , Skrill , Payolution and the Canadian company FANS Entertainment, which was also acquired in 2015 ; all of them now have the addition "A Paysafe Company" in the brand logo. Other previous brands of the group, such as the payment platform Netbanx , are offered directly under the Paysafe brand . Since December 2015, the new Paysafe Group has been listed on the main segment of the London Stock Exchange (after previously only being located on the lower AIM stock exchange segment).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neteller's founding date
  2. ↑ a b c Press release on the 2015 annual results ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on November 21, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.paysafe.com
  3. ↑ Optimal Payments closes Skrill acquisition. finextra.com, August 19, 2015, accessed November 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ London Stock Exchange: New issues and IPO summary , accessed on November 26, 2016 (English, xls file)
  5. ↑ Neteller acquires Netbanx. (No longer available online.) Www.iomtoday.co.im, October 31, 2005, archived from the original on November 24, 2016 ; accessed on November 23, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iomtoday.co.im
  6. ↑ oath statement by the FBI as an opportunity for the prosecution of Stephen Lawrence , January 16, 2007 Retrieved on November 24, 2016 (pdf)
  7. ↑ The Independent: Online purge sees NETeller chiefs arrested in US , January 17, 2007, accessed on November 24, 2016 (English)
  8. ↑ Christopher Hunt, Poker News - NETELLER Begins Long-Awaited Payout Plan . PokerListings. July 29, 2007. Accessed March 31, 2015.
  9. ↑ Finextra: company renames
  10. ↑ a b listing prospectus. (PDF) Prospectus on the occasion of the admission of Paysafe Group to the main segment of the London Stock Exchange. (No longer available online.) Paysafe, December 2015, archived from the original on August 20, 2016 ; accessed on November 23, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.paysafe.com
  11. ↑ Melanie Manner: From physicist to successful young Internet entrepreneur. Wirtschaftsblatt , February 24, 2001, archived from the original on December 23, 2015 ; accessed on December 22, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Paysafecard - the first prepaid card for web shoppers. paysafecard, September 14, 2000, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  13. ↑ paysafecard was used over 10 million times in 2007. Der Standard , February 6, 2008, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  14. ↑ paysafecard receives EU license to issue electronic money - derstandard.at/3361758/paysafecard-erhaelt-EU-License-zur-Ausgabe-von-elektronischem-Geld. Der Standard , June 12, 2008, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Bruno Habegger: paysafecard is expanding into Switzerland. pctipp.ch, February 21, 2008, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  16. ↑ paysafecard takes over payment provider Wallie Holding. Der Standard , August 24, 2011, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  17. ↑ David Diem: Exit: Wiener Paysafecard goes to Skrill for € 140 million. internetszene.at, June 28, 2012, accessed on December 22, 2015 .
  18. ↑ zinnaglism2: Skrill Group Acquires Payolution 4 Months after Launch. techcrunch.com, September 7, 2011, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  19. ↑ Skrill strengthens Paysafecard. In: Courier . April 2, 2015, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Optimal Payments closes Skrill acquisition. Optimal Payments, August 10, 2015, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Optimal Payments snaps up FANS Entertainment. igamingbusiness.com, May 28, 2015, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  22. ↑ NETBANX Payment Gateway & Merchant Account. Retrieved December 22, 2015 .