Fidelity National Buying Metavante For $2.94B

STEPHEN BERNARD

NEW YORK (AP) — Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said Wednesday it will acquire Metavante Technologies Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at about $2.94 billion.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National, which is unrelated to Boston-based Fidelity Investments, provides transaction processing, card issuer and outsourcing services for more than 14,000 financial institutions. Milwaukee-based Metavante provides banking and payments technologies for about 8,000 financial firms. Metavante was a unit of Marshall & Ilsley Corp. until 2007 when it was spun off as a separate public company.

The two companies combined to generate $5.2 billion in revenue in 2008. Fidelity National said it expects to achieve cost synergies of about $260 million after the acquisition is completed. The deal, which is expected to close during the third quarter, should boost Fidelity National's earnings in 2010. ...