I found this story interesting because HomeATM offers payment processing, real-time money transfers, TRUE PIN Debit for the Web, Two Factor Authentication for online banking and thus bill payment. Eula Adams, former COO of Pay By Touch used to be the CEO of Western Union. Wonder if he's involved...he's in Denver. Either way, Charlie, give us a call, let discuss synergies! Ex-CEO of First Data Corp., makes a power play in Denver - The Denver Post
Charlie Fote, (left) the executive who moved First Data Corp. from Atlanta to metro Denver, is jumping back into the electronic-payments business.
Fote has kept a low profile since November 2005, when he stepped down as chief executive and chairman of the country's largest processor of credit- and debit-card transactions.
The Connecticut transplant helped his son launch a corn and soybean farm in Nebraska, ranched up in Boulder, spent time with his eight grandkids, rode his Harley and golfed with friends. But the hard-charging executive, known for his 6:30 a.m. daily staff meetings, realized he wasn't ready to hang it all up at age 60.
"I was getting bored," he admits.
Fote also saw a confluence of willing investors, eager sellers of payment and transfer companies and unemployed talent in the area.
Over the past eight months, Fote has crafted plans for a new holding company, which will be based in the south metro area.
Using his own money and funds from two or three private equity firms, Fote plans to acquire companies, the first by September, in the electronic-payments and money-transfer business. "It will look like Western Union and First Data put together," Fote said.
Shortly after Fote left First Data, the company's board of directors voted to spin off Western Union into a separate company.
If integrating the two companies was his vision for the future, it wasn't going to be realized. "It will be easier this time to build it the way we want to build it," Fote said. "We have no baggage. We are starting fresh."
Fote said the new company, which doesn't yet have a name, will emphasize what consumers want rather than focusing on technology or payment processing, which is increasingly becoming a commodity business.
One example: Merchants in the new system can offer customers the ability to decide at the register what currency they want to pay with. The conversion will happen at the point of sale.
Nobody is offering an integrated system that can process payments and handle money transfers and bill payment, said Gwenn Bezard, research director of Aite Group, a financial research and advisory firm in Boston.
"It makes a lot of sense as a concept to bring to market something that is integrated," Bezard said. "The concern I have is that merchants already have access to those products." The success of his venture will depend on the willingness of merchants to purchase an integrated package rather than a la carte, Fote said.
Fote is confident he can repeat the success of First Data, which went from $11 million to $11 billion in sales in the three decades he worked there. "You have to have growth," Fote said. "You need a success story."
