Epassporte Under New Ownership
MARINA DEL REY, Calif. - After a mid-February split that saw partner Chris Mallick leave the company, the Paycom/ePassporte triumvirate are back together again—at least on how to split things up.
Co-founders Joel Hall and Clay Andrews, along with Mallick, the owners of online payment processor Paycom and prepaid Visa card ePassporte for the past five years, have reached an agreement giving Mallick sole ownership of ePassporte and Hall and Andrews ownership of Paycom.
Terms were not disclosed, but Mallick said the deal has been in the works since his departure.
“I can tell you that I bought them and they bought me. It was a very complex transaction because we had a lot of business interests together after five years,” Mallick said.
Official word from Paycom on the deal was that it allows Andrews and Hall to concentrate their efforts on the company they co-founded and gives them complete control to determine the company's strategic direction.
In a joint statement, Andrews and Hall said, “We are pleased to announce that we have successfully completed a transaction that provides the individuals involved with their own separate and exclusive business and allows both companies to focus on core competencies and goals that are targeted to meet their respective clients’ needs. We both wish the ePassporte team the best of luck.”
Both companies will continue doing business as usual and ties between them will remain. Mallick said Paycom would continue to provide the gateway, customer service, and some other back-end services for ePassporte for the foreseeable future.
The deal, which was closed Monday, is the culmination of what at first seemed a less-than-amicable split.
“When we split up in mid-February tensions were a bit high, but we remained friends and we work very well together and we have for five years. I think that’s probably going to continue,” Mallick said.
During his time away, Mallick looked into starting his own payment processor, but ultimately decided on the present option.
“I worked on a new billing platform as well as an ePassporte-like product, but final analysis was we had so many businesses together and we had such a large pie it would make more sense to cut that up rather than go out and try to reinvent the wheel. Paycom is a very mature, seasoned and respected system and I helped mature it, season it, and helped it get respect. To compete with it is sort of like running for office against your son. For me, this was infinitely better, particularly after weighing the options, the costs and the barriers of entry into the marketplace,” Mallick said.
Paycom.net will remain in their current offices in Southern California. ePassporte will have a representative office in Southern California, with its corporate headquarters and majority of its business activities remaining in Curacao. ePassporte’s sales and marketing operation is located in Toronto.
http://www.avnonline.com/index.php?P...tent_ID=234360
Interesting stuff for sure, although, i cant help but wonder how this is going to effect support related issues for Epass users now.
Definately a good move on Chris' part though :thumbsup:
Regards,
Lee
