Visa Inc., the world’s largest payments network, agreed to acquire Visa Europe Ltd. in a deal valued at as much as €21.2 billion ($23.4 billion) to unify the brand globally after eight years as separate companies, Bloomberg reported. The transaction includes a €16.5 billion upfront consideration and the potential for an additional €4.7 billion payable following the fourth anniversary of the completion of the deal, the companies said Monday in a statement. The purchase ends years of speculation among analysts about whether the companies, which split in 2007 ahead of the US firm’s initial public offering, would reunite. The lack of meaningful contributions to earnings from Europe has long been seen as a weakness for Visa and an advantage for smaller competitor MasterCard Inc., which owns its European business. Foster City, California-based Visa relies more on the US, which accounted for 54% of revenue in fiscal 2014, compared with 39% for MasterCard.
