Intercontinental Exchange Announces Agreement to Acquire Leading Loyalty Program Provider Bridge2 Solutions
February 05 2020 - 9:20AM
Business Wire
Acquisition to be Subsequently Combined with
Bakkt, ICE’s Majority-Owned Subsidiary, Extending Bakkt’s Push into
Consumer Digital Asset Management
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator
of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and
listings services, today announced that it has agreed to acquire
Bridge2 Solutions, a leading provider of loyalty solutions for
merchants and consumers. Following the completion of the
transaction, Bakkt, a majority-owned subsidiary of ICE, intends to
acquire Bridge2 Solutions from ICE using proceeds from Bakkt’s
Series B round of funding, which is expected to close later this
quarter.
Since launching the Bakkt Warehouse in 2019, along with its
growing suite of bitcoin futures and options contracts, Bakkt has
worked to bring trust, stability and innovation to the digital
asset trading market. When Bridge2 Solutions ultimately joins
Bakkt, the strategic combination will accelerate the development of
the Bakkt consumer application, which will provide digital asset
aggregation, conversion and payments through a single platform for
consumers around the world.
Today, Bridge2 Solutions enables some of the world’s leading
brands to engage customers and drive loyalty. It powers programs
for seven of the top ten financial institutions and 4,500 loyalty,
incentive and employee perk programs for companies across a wide
spectrum of industries. The company’s Loyalty Pay solution expands
the value of rewards programs and gives consumers a universal
ability to pay with reward currencies both at the point of sale
(POS) in retail stores and in-app through digital wallets.
Integrating with Bakkt will allow top retail brands to offer more
innovative loyalty programs and help consumers unlock and access
value in those programs.
“Bakkt was created to help bring transparency and trust to the
previously unregulated digital asset markets,” said Jeffrey
Sprecher, Founder, Chairman and CEO of ICE. “With the launch of the
Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt futures and options markets, the company
has achieved quick success with its custody and trading offering.
Bakkt’s second round of funding, and its acquisition of Bridge2
Solutions, will help accelerate the development of Bakkt’s consumer
application, which has been a key part of our strategy since we
first looked at this market.”
“With the launch of the Bakkt app, we will, for the first time,
offer consumers a robust platform to consolidate and use all of
their digital assets, from crypto to loyalty points to in game
tokens, in one user-friendly wallet,” said Mike Blandina, CEO of
Bakkt. “Combining Bridge2 Solutions’ embedded relationships with
banks and merchants and their innovative Loyalty Pay solution will
enable us to launch new products that further drive loyalty and
empower consumers to trade, transfer and spend digital assets in
entirely new ways.”
The global ecosystem for digital assets represents over $1.2
trillion in value and includes digital rewards, loyalty points,
in-game virtual assets, merchant stored value, gift cards and
cryptocurrencies. Millennial consumers, in particular, embrace this
form of value. Whether they are monetizing loyalty points from a
favorite airline or trading skins for a video game, the Bakkt app
will enable consumers to unlock much of that value, allowing them
to trade and spend their digital assets freely, as they would any
other currency.
The terms of ICE’s acquisition of Bridge2 Solutions, the closing
of which is contingent on completion of Hart-Scott-Rodino review,
were not disclosed. Additionally, the acquisition will not have a
material impact on net income and is not expected to impact ICE’s
capital return plans.
About Bakkt
Majority-owned by ICE, Bakkt was established in 2018 to build
trust in and unlock the value of digital assets. The Bakkt
Warehouse is operated by Bakkt Trust Company, which is a qualified
custodian for safekeeping bitcoin and is regulated by the New York
State Department of Financial Services. To bring transparency and
confidence to bitcoin markets, Bakkt launched the first fully
regulated bitcoin futures and options contracts on ICE Futures
U.S., which leverages ICE’s enterprise-grade technology and
industry-standard trading and clearing infrastructure. Bakkt plans
to build on this momentum in 2020 with a product road map including
new trading products, an expanded custody offering, an innovative
consumer payments app, along with additional innovations to be
announced. Visit www.bakkt.com to learn more.
About Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) is a Fortune 500 company
formed in the year 2000 to modernize markets. ICE serves customers
by operating the exchanges, clearing houses and information
services they rely upon to invest, trade and manage risk across
global financial and commodity markets. A leader in market data,
ICE Data Services serves the information and connectivity needs
across virtually all asset classes. As the parent company of the
New York Stock Exchange, the company is the premier venue for
raising capital in the world, driving economic growth and
transforming markets.
Trademarks of ICE and/or its affiliates include Intercontinental
Exchange, ICE, ICE block design, NYSE and New York Stock Exchange.
Information regarding additional trademarks and intellectual
property rights of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. and/or its
affiliates is located at
http://www.intercontinentalexchange.com/terms-of-use. Key
Information Documents for certain products covered by the EU
Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation
can be accessed on the relevant exchange website under the heading
“Key Information Documents (KIDS).”
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995 -- Statements in this press release regarding
ICE's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking
statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion
of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual
results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking
statements, see ICE's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE's
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, as
filed with the SEC on February 7, 2019.
ICE-CORP
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ICE Media Contact: Damon Leavell Damon.Leavell@theice.com
212-323-8587
ICE Investor Contact: Warren Gardiner
Warren.Gardiner@theice.com 770-835-0114
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