NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As merger and acquisition activity in U.S. markets continues at a brisk pace, SRS Acquiom announced today that since launching its Acquiom Payments platform less than two years ago, it has already processed more than $17 billion in transaction payments to shareholders including many whose payments are considered taxable employee compensation.
“Acquiom Payments is unique because it allows merger parties to easily administer payments to all of the various groups that need to be paid in connection with a typical merger transaction, including stockholders, employees and vendors,” said Austen Lovelace, SRS Acquiom Product Manager. “And, as banks exit the M&A payments business due to its complexity, demand for our services is skyrocketing.”
“Even after a merger or acquisition is completed, there are typically a lot of complicated, time-consuming legal and tax matters to be addressed surrounding treatment of present and former employee compensation,” he said. “Acquiom Compensation Payments is the industry’s only full service product to address these issues for private M&A.”
SRS Acquiom, founded in 2007 to provide innovative products and services to address client “pain points” in private M&A, said current payment processing volume now exceeds $684 million a month and, if M&A activity continues strong, will surpass the $20-billion threshold by early 2016.
“Our innovation is proving critical for parties in these deals,” added Mark Vogel, SRS Acquiom Co-CEO. “Rather than keeping people waiting weeks and sometimes months for payment, we’re able to cut through the paperwork and pay 80% of merger considerations within 24 hours after the closing of the deal, which far exceeds the performance of banks and other paying agents.”
While traditional paying agents put the responsibility on their clients to do the work, Vogel noted, “SRS Acquiom’s full service payments administrative solution relieves the administrative burden for our clients.” He added, “For tax issues, payments can be especially tricky when they involve obligations paid to option holders, restricted stockholders, management carve-out participants, and employee bonuses. Since these payments would generally be characterized as compensation, they are subject to special state and federal income and payroll tax withholding regulations.”
“Just as important,” Lovelace said, “is that we have dedicated relationship managers to guide individuals through the process, navigate issues and resolve problems quickly. Our team’s objective is to make this a convenient, manageable, secure process for our clients.”
“SRS Acquiom,” according to Peggy Tirrell, Associate General Counsel, EMC Corporation, “has been flexible and responsive to our many needs. We’ve used them several times on both payments and escrow contracts and will continue to use them for future business. They get the job done and have exceeded our tough standards,” she said.
Acquiom Payments was launched in 2013 as the first payments platform designed for M&A. It has proven to be easy for industry participants to use with a step-by-step process that eliminates confusion and relieves administrative burdens, while retaining records for the life of the deal.
To help merger parties understand and navigate some of the complex issues related to payments, SRS Acquiom issued a new M&A technical paper on Monday, November 16th examining the payout of employee stock options and how they can impact payroll taxes. The white paper titled, “How Your Deal Treats the Payout of Employee Stock Options Can Have Significant Payroll Tax Implications,” written by Sean Arend, Managing Director, Corporate Development and General Counsel, is available on our website at http://www.srsacquiom.com.
ABOUT SRS ACQUIOM
SRS Acquiom provides innovative M&A products and services that deliver better economics with unprecedented ease and efficiency for buyers and sellers. Services include industry-leading escrow investment, payments administration and shareholder representation. Innovations in escrow solutions are utilized in a broad array of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and insurance. Founded in 2007, SRS Acquiom continues to transform the industry with Acquiom Clearinghouse™, the first and only online payments platform; Acquiom® Compensation Solutions, a service for processing payments treated as taxable compensation; and ground-breaking escrow investment options based on a unique patented method and tailored for M&A. As the global leader, SRS Acquiom represents 90,000 shareholders in 97 countries and has been engaged on 1,000 transactions valued at $165 billion. Annual data studies and publications are widely used to shape industry best practices.
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