Princeton Payment Solutions Acquired, But Jobs Stay in NJ

NJTechWeekly.com learned at close of day Friday that Princeton Payment Solutions (PPS), Princeton, N.J., had been acquired by Financial Transaction Services (FTS), an electronic transaction-processing services provider based in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. FTS processed more than $5.5 billion in bank card volume in 2011.

“We can’t discuss the value of the offer,” Stephanie Levine, marketing manager at PPS, told us, though she did say the company will continue to operate under its original name. PPS “is absolutely staying in New Jersey,” and no significant changes to the firm’s ongoing operations are anticipated. In fact, Levine said, “we are looking to quickly expand with top-notch talent across the board.” Asked what that meant, she explained the company “is expecting to hire a few people,” but declined to give specifics.

The only major management change to the company is that Robert Nathan, FTS director of business development, will be joining PPS as president, taking over the company’s day-to-day operations, Levine said. Everyone else is continuing on in their positions, she noted.

PPS CEO Kevin McGuire said the acquisition would “allow us to combine our enterprise-level gateway and payment technology” with FTS’s “acquiring platform.” This should benefit both companies, he said.

In a press release, FTS said the purchase of PPS further increases FTS’s offering in the payment-processing marketplace. “To join forces with a payment engine that already handles processing for companies like Adobe and General Electric, etc., has been a goal of ours for several years now,” FTS president Jeff Shanahan said. PPS has been able to integrate into complex ERP systems and provide myriad solutions, he added.

“We can take their products and solutions to our current distribution channels, and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. We have already started development on the FTS Merchant Center, which will offer all of the PPS products in a hosted gateway environment that we plan to make available to all of our merchants and agents,” Shanahan said.