Worldline, a financial services company, agreed to acquire Ingenico, a French-based company, whose business is to provide the technology involved in secure electronic transactions, for $8.7bn in a cash and stock transaction. "I am proud to announce that today is a great day for Worldline and for Ingenico, and more widely for our Payment industry: Together we create the European World-Class leader in digital payments. We deeply respect Ingenico and its team for the deep business repositioning of their company realized over the last years into one of the largest European Payment Service Providers with outstanding global positions in Online Payments and Merchant Acquiring," Gilles Grapinet, Worldline Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.