Blackhawk Continues Gifting, Incentives Expansion with $120 Million Buy (Jan. 7, 2016)
The holiday shopping season may be over, but Blackhawk Network remains in a buying mood. The company has announced the $120 million acquisition of GiftCards.com LLC, a seller of digital and physical gift cards through the Web, and affiliate OmniCard LLC, which provides prepaid incentive and rewards programs for business clients. The purchase is Blackhawk’s latest in a spate of recent acquisitions and partnerships to expand Blackhawk’s product offerings and distribution footprint. In June, Blackhawk bolstered its employee incentives business with the purchase of recognition platform provider Achievers Corp. That deal was Blackhawk’s fifth in the incentives space since 2013, and last year the company launched a new incentives division, Blackhawk Engagement Solutions, to oversee its operations in the vertical.
Pleasanton, Calif.-based Blackhawk has been active on the gifting front, too. In November 2015, the company nabbed Ditch gifting provider DIDIX Gifting & Promotions. A month earlier, Blackhawk announced its partner gift cards would be integrated into Samsung Pay, enabling cardholders to manage and redeem their gift cards through the mobile payments platform.
GiftCards.com—the latest addition to Blackhawk’s gifting roster—offers features including GiftLocal, a service that provides gift cards for local merchants, and a virtual Visa gift card that can be delivered via email or mobile app. “By merging our current e-commerce offerings and the distinctive assets offered by GiftCards.com, we’ll be able to deliver the broadest selection of gift cards to current and future customers, both individual consumers and corporate buyers,” said Talbott Roche, president, Blackhawk Network. Roche added that GiftCards.com often shows up high in search engine results, resulting in increased e-commerce traffic and visibility.
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