Early last year we covered Visa's attempted $5.3 billion acquisition of a fintech business called Plaid. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the deal has been called off by the Department of Justice on anti-competitive grounds.
Plaid allows fintech apps to pull information about an individuals finances from their banks and other financial services providers. The Department of Justice felt that Plaid would become competitive to Visa in the future. Visa is already an investor in Plaid and they still plan to work together as partners.
You may have noticed that I said the deal falling through could be a fortunate outcome. That is because many deals are not successful and often the acquirer pays too much.
As my colleague Bright excitedly pointed out, big names such as Bill Ackman and Chamath Palihapitiya could be circling to buy the business. Chamath tweeted this yesterday, although I have no idea what the snake and tulip mean!
http://www.vestact.com/images/plaid_jan_21.png