Stellar Foundation Eyes Potential takeover of MoneyGram

Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting the development and growth of the Stellar network, has contacted MoneyGram International about a potential takeover of the 81-year-old remittance giant, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

San Francisco-based Stellar, which oversees a network for facilitating cross-border payments, is working with Advent on a potential acquisition of MoneyGram said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public.

Bloomberg claims that Stellar is working on the potential acquisition in partnership with Advent International, a Boston-based private equity firm specializing in international buyouts.

According to Bloomberg, no final decision has been reached so far. Both Stellar and Advent could opt to not proceed with a deal, the sources added.

MoneyGram has been a takeover target for years, as more people turn to online payments and away from old-school money-transfer services. Chinese financial services conglomerate Ant Group agreed to buy MoneyGram in 2017 but walked away after pushback from regulators. Its rival money transfer provider Western Union sought to acquire the company last year too but also walked away.

Founded in 2014, by Jed McCaleb, who also founded Ripple, Stellar is a crypto network focused on cross-border payments, an open-source platform that helps people and companies move money around the world and in different currencies using blockchain, a digital ledger that underpins cryptocurrencies.

MoneyGram has drawn interest from a blockchain payment services firm before. In November 2019, Ripple acquired a 10% stake in MoneyGram after investing $50 million in the money transfer service. It sold a third of its stake. The firms agreed to wind down a partnership agreement in March this year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought a case against Ripple, claiming that the firm’s sales of XRP token were unregistered securities offerings.