Shift4
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| NYSE: FOUR | |
| Industry | Payment processing |
| Founded | 1999 (as United Bank Card) |
| Founders | Jared Issacman |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Area served | United States, Canada |
Key people | Jared Isaacman |
| Revenue |  US$ 731.4 million (2019) |
| US$ 37.6 million (2019) | |
| US$ 58.1 million (2019) | |
| Total assets | US$ 788 million (2019) |
| Total equity | US$ 14.1 million (2019) |
| Website | shift4 |
Shift4 Payments is a payment processing company publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange and based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.[1][2] The company, founded in 1999 by the then 16-year old Jared Issacman, processes payments for over 200,000 businesses in the retail, hospitality, leisure and restaurant industries.[1][3] Shift4 specializes in commerce solutions such as mobile payment software and hardware.[4][5] When the company went public in 2020, Isaacman was still the CEO.[6]
History
While working as an employee of a payment processing company, the 16-year-old Issacman (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.[4][7] 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.[4] In 2012, United Bank Card rebranded as Harbortouch to better reflect its point-of-sale and payment technology.[4] The company rebranded once again in 2017 as Lighthouse Network, with Harbortouch becoming a subsidiary.[8][9] Between 2014 and 2017, the company expanded by acquiring multiple payment processing and point-of-sale companies, including Merchant Services Inc. (the same company Issacman worked for as a teen).[4] In 2017, the company - then operating as the Lighthouse Network - acquired payment gateway provider Shift4 Corporation and rebranded itself as Shift4 Payments.[9]
Shift4 Payments went public on the NYSE in June 2020, raising $345 million through its IPO.[3][2] The company is one of the few companies to go public in the months immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic. The company completed its ‘’roadshow” for investors entirely online.[6] 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.[3]
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.[10][11]
It works primarily in the restaurant, hospitality, retail and e-commerce industries.[6][12] Shift4 also offers cloud-based reporting and analytic software.[5] In 2019, the company processed approximately 3.5 billion transactions.[13]
References
- ^ a b Beltran, Luisa (5 June 2020). "Shift4 Payments Is the Latest IPO to Soar Despite Pandemic". Barron's. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ a b Tse, Crystal; Fioretti, Julia (4 June 2020). "Triple U.S. Trading Debut Caps 2020's Best Week for Listings". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ a b c Bary, Emily (5 June 2020). "Shift4 Payments stock surges after IPO in vote of confidence for economic recovery". MarketWatch. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Segran, Elizabeth (13 April 2015). "Meet The Fighter-Jet-Flying 32-Year-Old On Top Of The Payments Industry". Fast Company. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ a b "Shift4Payments, Inc". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ a b c Balogh, Shannon (6 June 2020). "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". Business Insider. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
- ^ Nivedita, C; Manikandan, Abhishek; Hussain, Noor Zainab; Franklin, Joshua (5 June 2020). "Shift4, Legend Biotech surge in banner week for U.S. IPOs". Reuters. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ Salamone, Anthony (22 March 2018). "Lehigh Valley credit card processing company won't relocate headquarters". The Morning Call. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
- ^ a b Nariyanuri, Sampath Sharma (17 January 2018). "Lighthouse Network buys payment processing company Shift4". S&P Global Market Intelligence. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
- ^ "Shift4 Payments Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Class A Common Stock". Yahoo Finance. 10 September 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ "Payment Methods Shift4 Introduces Contactless QR Pay Tech". PYMNTS.com. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
- ^ Kudo, Hikaru (29 July 2020). "Raiders Thinking Ahead with Shift4 Payments Partnership". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ Salamone, Anthony (5 June 2020). "Lehigh Valley's Shift4 Payments files to go public with initial price offering". The Morning Call. Retrieved 3 July 2020.