Just when some thought it would not be possible to introduce Ecommerce and internet Payments to any more industries, one firm has taken it upon itself to bring Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) to the online space.
Acquiom recently announced the release of Acquiom|Clearing House , an industry first in offering M&A payments administration service that is entirely online. Acquiom has complete rethought and simplified the once “slow” payment process and with little to no fees.
“The M&A payments process hasn’t seen innovation in decades,” “It is burdened with tedious and annoying tasks and paperwork that produce delays, errors, and bottlenecks. Acquiom|Clearinghouse eliminates the hassles and makes the payments process easy and quick for parties on both sides of the deal. M&A payment administration has finally gone online,” said Mark Vogel, co-CEO of SRS|Acquiom.
A press release from Acquiom lists the gained benefits from transferring payments of Mergers & Acquisitions to the web via Acquiom|Clearinghouse:
-Fast: Payment completion will be take place hours after being placed, rather than weeks.
“Slow payments is a huge hidden inefficiency in M&A. The annual opportunity cost in the U.S. for participants in private M&A transactions is $5 billion. Acquiom|Clearinghouse solves this; we’ve paid 80% of merger consideration on the day of closing, compared to an industry norm of 6-7 days later,” said Paul Koenig, co-CEO of SRS|Acquiom
- Better Economics: Given the speed of the transfers, shareholder funds do not sit idle for too long. Also, the process eliminates the steep fees associated with conventional large amount transfers, so the transfer is evidently cheaper.
-Ease of use: Buyers simply fund one account and then receive daily reports. The system quickly distributes third-party vendor payments out of merger consideration, such as those for legal and investment banker fees, or for debt obligations due at closing.
- Greater Reliability and Accuracy: As all payment information and amounts are entered by the parties themselves, leaving out the banks and any third party transfer services there is less room for error.
- Secure: As with the almost all Ecommerce and online payment platfomrs, Acquiom|Clearinghouse is a secure system which utilizes state-of-the-art multi-factor authentication and sophisticated risk monitoring tools.
"M&A deal technology has evolved, but some aspects of the deal process haven’t changed for decades. The payments process is one of those areas, “Services like Acquiom|Clearinghouse show what technology can do to make the deal process more efficient from both an economic and practical standpoint,” said John Hughes, Partner at Sidley Austin LLP, and Chair of the ABA’s Subcommittee on Private Equity M&A.
With the advances in technology and adoption of internet and online based services, we would not be surprised to see more conventional payment strategies make their way to the online and Ecommerce space.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia and OpenClipart
