Shift4 Explained

Shift4 Payments, Inc.
Type:Public
Industry:Finance
Founded: (as United Bank Card)
Founder:Jared Isaacman
Location City:Center Valley, Pennsylvania
Location Country:United States
Revenue Year:2023
Income Year:2023
Net Income Year:2023
Assets Year:2023
Equity Year:2023
Num Employees:3,030
Num Employees Year:2023
Footnotes:Financials .
References:[1]

Shift4 Payments, Inc. is an American payment processing company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.[2] [3] The company, founded in 1999 by the then 16-year-old Jared Isaacman, processes payments for over 200,000 businesses in the retail, hospitality, leisure and restaurant industries.[4] Shift4 specializes in commerce solutions such as mobile payment software and hardware.[5] [6] The company was publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange 2020.[7]

History

While working as an employee of a payment processing company, the 16-year-old Isaacman (who had already earned his GED and gone to work full-time) identified what he saw as inefficiencies in the industry. In response, he launched United Bank Card in his parents' basement in Far Hills, New Jersey.[5] [8] At the time, it generally took merchants about one month to set up a payment system and merchants had to pay for their credit card readers and sign a lengthy application. As an alternative, Isaacman's new company cut the set-up time to one day, gave merchants free credit card readers and only required merchants sign a two-page application.[5]

In 2012, United Bank Card rebranded as Harbortouch to better reflect its point-of-sale and payment technology.[5]

Between 2014 and 2017, the company expanded by acquiring multiple payment processing and point-of-sale companies, including Merchant Services Inc. (the same company Isaacman worked for as a teen).[5]

The company rebranded once again in 2017 as Lighthouse Network, with Harbortouch becoming a subsidiary.[9] [10]

In 2017, the company - then operating as the Lighthouse Network - acquired payment gateway provider Shift4 Corporation and rebranded itself as Shift4 Payments.[10]

Shift4 went public on the NYSE in June 2020, raising $345 million through its IPO.[4] [3] The company is one of the few companies to go public in the months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company completed its "roadshow" for investors entirely online.[7] The company was the first to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange after the trading floor was reopened following its shutdown because of the pandemic.[4]

In November 2020, Shift4 announced the acquisition of 3dcart,[11] an E-commerce platform. In January 2021, Shift4 rebranded this solution as Shift4Shop.[12]

In March 2021, the company announced the acquisition of VenueNext, a provider of point-of-sale and payment solutions for stadiums, arena, and other entertainment venues.[13] A year later, the company announced it acquired Finaro.[14]

Services

The company's business model involves integrating payment processing services into various hardware and software products as well as the gathering of business intelligence.[15] [16]

It works primarily in the restaurant, hospitality, retail and e-commerce industries.[7] [17] Shift4 also offers cloud-based reporting and analytic software.[6] In 2019, the company processed approximately 3.5 billion transactions.[18]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Annual report Form 10-K 2023 Tesla Inc. . January 29, 2024 . June 10, 2024 .
  2. News: Beltran . Luisa . Shift4 Payments Is the Latest IPO to Soar Despite Pandemic . 3 July 2020 . Barron's . 5 June 2020.
  3. News: Tse . Crystal . Fioretti . Julia . Triple U.S. Trading Debut Caps 2020's Best Week for Listings . 3 July 2020 . Bloomberg . 4 June 2020.
  4. News: Bary . Emily . Shift4 Payments stock surges after IPO in vote of confidence for economic recovery . 3 July 2020 . MarketWatch . 5 June 2020.
  5. News: Segran . Elizabeth . Meet The Fighter-Jet-Flying 32-Year-Old On Top Of The Payments Industry . 3 July 2020 . Fast Company . 13 April 2015.
  6. Web site: Shift4Payments, Inc . Yahoo! Finance . 3 July 2020.
  7. News: Balogh . Shannon . Shift4 Payments just surged 46% in its public-market debut. Its CEO walked us through the 300-meeting virtual road show it took to launch the IPO. . 9 July 2020 . Business Insider . 6 June 2020.
  8. News: Nivedita . C . Manikandan . Abhishek . Hussain . Noor Zainab . Franklin . Joshua . Shift4, Legend Biotech surge in banner week for U.S. IPOs . 3 July 2020 . Reuters . 5 June 2020.
  9. News: Salamone . Anthony . Lehigh Valley credit card processing company won't relocate headquarters . 17 July 2020 . The Morning Call . 22 March 2018.
  10. News: Nariyanuri . Sampath Sharma . Lighthouse Network buys payment processing company Shift4 . 6 July 2020 . S&P Global Market Intelligence . 17 January 2018.
  11. News: 2020-11-05. Shift4 Payments Acquires 3dcart Ecommerce Platform. en-US.
  12. News: 2021-01-27. Shift4 Payments Rebrands 3dcart, Launches eCommerce Platform Shift4Shop. en-US.
  13. News: 2021-03-10. Shift4's acquisition of VenueNext paves way for payments in sports, entertainment. en-US.
  14. Web site: Spiro . James . Finaro outlines its future plans following acquisition by US-based Shift4 . CTECH . 29 March 2022 . 10 April 2022.
  15. News: Shift4 Payments Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Class A Common Stock . 5 October 2020 . Yahoo Finance . 10 September 2020.
  16. News: Payment Methods Shift4 Introduces Contactless QR Pay Tech . 22 July 2020 . PYMNTS.com . 24 June 2020.
  17. News: Kudo . Hikaru . Raiders Thinking Ahead with Shift4 Payments Partnership . 5 October 2020 . Sports Illustrated . 29 July 2020.
  18. News: Salamone . Anthony . Lehigh Valley's Shift4 Payments files to go public with initial price offering . 3 July 2020 . The Morning Call . 2020-06-05.