The story
ACI was founded in Omaha, Nebraska as Applied Communications Inc, on
September 1, 1975, to develop software for communications applications using the new NonStop computers from Tandem Computers. The founders were James Cody, Dave Willadsen, and Dennis Gates. Chuck Hackett, Charly Foglesong, and Mike May began ACI's relationship with Tandem. Early projects involved building systems to handle ATMs and front ends for core banking systems, which led to the launch of the first product, BASE24, in 1982. BASE24 was coined by a salesman to represent "Baseline Software for 24 hour-per-day system operations".
BASE24 was expanded over time to service transactions from other channels, such as POS terminals and bank branch systems. The product portfolio grew to cover functions related to card transactions, such as clearing, settlement and fraud detection. The hardware support for these products was extended to suppliers IBM, HP, Stratus and Sun Microsystems.
In the 1990s, ACI's product range was expanded to cover wholesale banking payments with software for ACH transactions and wire transfers leading to the acquisition of IntraNet, Inc. in 1998, and adding the Money Transfer System product.
Since 1995, ACI has been publicly traded on NASDAQ, initially under the name Transaction Systems Architects (TSA), and, since July 2007, under the name ACI Worldwide, Inc. (ACIW). Prior to that ACI had periods of ownership by US West and Tandem, and as a private company.
Acquisitions
1998: IntraNet, Inc. was acquired by ACI Worldwide's predecessor Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. IntraNet, Inc. manufactured software systems to facilitate electronic payments.
2005: S2 Systems signed an agreement to sell substantially all its assets to Transaction Systems Architects, Inc.
2005: Restructuring of Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. into a highly focused organization, merging ACI, Insession, and IntraNet into one operating unit under the name ACI Worldwide. The name change became official in July 2007.
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2006: P&H Solutions Inc., a provider of a Web-based corporate cash management product, was acquired by ACI Worldwide.
2006: Electronic Payment Systems AG (eps) was acquired.
2007: Stratasoft Sdn Bhd was acquired.
2007: Visual WEB Solutions Inc., a financial banking applications company, was acquired.
2009: Euronet Essentis was purchased by ACI to expand card issuing and merchant management capabilities
2011: The acquisition of ISD Corporation was announced to broaden the functionality of ACI's payments products for retailers.
2012: S1 Corporation was acquired to broaden ACI's suite of payment offerings for financial organizations, processors and retailers.
2012: North Data Uruguay S.A. was acquired.
2012: Distra Pty Ltd was acquired.
2013: Online Resources Corporation was acquired.
2013: Official Payments Holdings, a provider of electronic bill payment technology, was acquired. The company processed approximately 20 million payments, totaling over $9 billion annually.
2013: Profesionales en Transacciones Electronicas S.A. (PTESA) was acquired.
2014: An agreement to acquire Retail Decisions (ReD) was announced and completed on August 12, 2014.
2015: PAY.ON, which provides white-label hosted payment gateway services, was acquired.
2019: ACI enters agreement to acquire Speedpay, Western Union's U.S. bill pay business, for $750 million
2019: Walletron was acquired.
Payment system
Payment gateway
Payment service provider
Digital banking
Transaction banking
Electronic billing
From Wikipedia’s article on ACI Worldwide, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6