Golden Eagle Leasing bought for $30M

Golden Eagle Leasing Inc., a Ridgefield company that leases credit card transaction equipment, was recently bought by a New York City competitor, Northern Leasing Systems Inc., for $30 million, according to statements released by both companies.

The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Hypercom

"This transaction is consistent with our previously stated strategy of focusing our efforts and concentrating our resources on those products and services most valued by our customers in our core electronic payment and transaction processing business," said Chris Alexander, Hypercom chairman and chief executive officer.

Structured as an asset purchase agreement, Northern Leasing paid Hypercom $30 million in cash for all of Golden Eagle's assets, exclusive of cash, and additionally assumed the company's related liabilities.

As of June 30, Hypercom reported $51.6 million cash, including approximately $14.2 million related to Golden Eagle.

"Golden Eagle had a very nice roster of clients who will be able to take advantage of the internal systems Northern has put together over the years. We thought it would be a nice addition to the current roster of clients we have," said Jay Cohen, founder and chief executive officer of Northern Leasing Systems Inc.

Cohen declined to disclose the liabilities assumed by Northern in the transaction.

Upon the transfer of ownership, Northern Leasing will consolidate Golden

Eagle's operations within its own in order to maximize marketing and

administration economics of scale.

Golden Eagle filed with the state Labor Department notice of layoffs of approximately 50 employees effective Nov. 30.

"Technically, Hypercom did notify the state of layoffs in light of the sale and then we hired some of those employees back," said Cohen. He estimated that 45 Golden Eagle employees would be hired for the "short term and others will be part of the company's long-term plans.

"We want to streamline operations, so some will be laid off. The plan is not to have any redundancy There are specific things we would like to keep in Connecticut and we will do so," he said.

Golden Eagle Leasing was founded in 1987 through acquisition of a portfolio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Originally branded Golden Eagle Credit Corp., it was acquired in 1991 and became a subsidiary of Sequa Capital. The brand changed again to Sequa Credit but still was operating in the general office-leasing arena.

After Hypercom acquired it, Golden Eagle entered the market for micro-tickt leasing, classified as transactions under $5,000. Golden Eagle markets its leasing services to more than 4,000 equipment vendors throughout the United States.

Founded in 1991, Northern Leasing Systems Inc. has evolved into one of the largest micro-ticket lessors in the United States. The company specializes in providing state-of-the-art leasing and financing services for point-of-sale credit card terminals and now manages more than 150,000 accounts.

"I think Golden Eagle's client will be able to take advantage of a streamlined micro-ticket process we've put in place over the 13 years we've been in business.