VeriFone Acquires WAY Systems For Up To $9 Million (They Raised Over $50 Million)

Electronic payment solutions provider VeriFone Systems this morning announced it has acquired the assets of WAY Systems, a provider of mobile POS solutions and gateway services for mobile merchants.

The purchase price consisted of an upfront payment of $6 million and an earn-out payable in one year of up to an additional $3 million dollars should certain performance targets be met.

VeriFone says the acquisition will not have a material impact on its financial results.

Here’s the funny part of the acquisition: WAY Systems was founded in 2002 with initial seed capital from Bill Melton, who founded VeriFone. From 2004 through 2009, WAY Systems received an additional $50 million in equity investments from Bessemer Venture Partners and Austin Ventures as well as debt financing from Lighthouse Capital Partners.

In other words, not exactly a stellar exit (understatement alert).

Over the past five years, WAY Systems did manage to build up a customer base of more than 25,000 mobile merchants who use the company’s compact mobile POS technology and gateway services.

VeriFone will immediately take over support of these merchants within its PAYware Connect Gateway infrastructure. Additionally, VeriFone will offer continuous non-stop support for all existing WAY mobile systems, bolstered by VeriFone’s extensive mobile portfolio, including PAYware Mobile and VX Evolution secure payment systems.