MasterCard Agrees to Buy DataCash for $520 Million

Hugh Collins
Updated

MasterCard (MA) agreed to buy the UK payment service provider DataCash Group for £333 million ($520 million) to boost its e-commerce business.

MasterCard will pay £3.60 ($5.63) per share for DataCash, a premium of 54% over Wednesday's close, Reuters reported. MasterCard said it expects the deal to reduce its fourth-quarter earnings by about 5 cents per share, break even in 2011 and add to earnings in 2012.

DataCash reported 2009 pretax profit of £16.6 million ($25.93 million).

The deal is expected to close by the end of October.

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