The Stories You Haven't Heard: POS Resellers React To ISV Acquisitions

By Jim Roddy, VP of Marketing, RSPA

When acquisitions occur in the point of sale channel, we read the vendor press releases and hear the aspirational statements promising a better tomorrow. But often left without a public voice is the POS reseller who is also significantly impacted by the deal. To remedy that, in November 2017 Vantiv’s PaymentsEdge Advisory Services surveyed resellers who resold or still resell Digital Dining, Dinerware, and PC America – three ISVs who were acquired by Heartland in 2015. We believed their experiences over the past two-plus years would be more insightful than extrapolating possible scenarios for more recent ISV acquisitions.

I’m going to give you a double-shot of feedback here. This article features highlights from Vantiv’s reseller survey followed by reactions from POS channel executives about the survey data. (Follow this link to read full details from Vantiv’s Special Report on ISV Acquisitions by Payment Processors.)

POS VAR: “Nightmare Scenario,” Reseller Independence Under Attack

We asked, “On a scale of 0-10 (with 0 being extremely unhappy and 10 being perfectly happy), how happy are you with the acquisition of your ISV by a payment processor?”

• Composite average: 4.38
• 0-3: 46%
• 4-6: 23%
• 7-8: 23%
• 9-10: 8%

If you were dating someone for two years and asked them how happy they were with you, and they responded with a number between four and five, you’d be pretty nervous about your future together. This data point says to me that the acquiring payment processers have quite a mountain to climb in both perceived and actual value provided to the resellers and merchants.