The sale of MoneyGram to Alibaba’s Ant Financial for $1.2 billion has been thwarted by the government of the United States of America. Ant Financial had announced a deal to buy MoneyGram back in April 2017 after it beat off a rival bid from Euronet.
Announcing the rejection of the takeover bid, the CEO of MoneyGram, Alex Holmes said in a statement: “The geopolitical environment has changed considerably since we first announced the proposed transaction with Ant Financial nearly a year ago. Despite our best efforts to work cooperatively with the U.S. government, it has now become clear that CFIUS [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] will not approve this merger.
“Establishing this new strategic cooperation with MoneyGram will add a partner with global remittance capabilities to our ecosystem and, while Ant Financial won’t have a direct ownership relationship with MoneyGram, we look forward to working closely with the MoneyGram team to make our platform even more accessible – particularly to unbanked and underserved communities globally – and create even better experiences for our customers,” added Doug Feagin, President of Ant Financial International.
Ant is now expected to pay MoneyGram $30 million for the collapse or failure of the takeover deal.
The collapse of the deal is the second China-led acquisition of a U.S. tech company to have failed during U.S. President Trump’s tenure. Back in September, a private equity group was blocked from purchasing Lattice Semiconductor due to potential security risks.
