Blackhawk Network Acquires Tango Card

Expect Work Tech Acquisitions to Accelerate in 2024

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As reported by Steve Smith in Work Tech Weekly on January 31, 2024, Blackhawk Network has announced the acquisition of Tango Card. Blackhawk Network has acquired approximately 20 companies since the company’s founding in 2001, but the acquisition of Tango Card is the company’s first since 2020. Blackhawk Network is best known for establishing a branded gift card category in grocery stores more than 20 years ago. Now Blackhawk Network is a major global payment and incentive vendor with an emphasis on customer and employee engagement and loyalty. Blackhawk Network is valued at more than $4 billion, though this is only an estimate given that the company was taken private in 2018 by Silver Lake and P2 Capital Partners.?

Other notable acquisitions by Blackhawk Network include:

• National Gift Card (2020)
• SVM Cards (2020)
• Edge Loyalty Systems (2019)
• CashStar (2017)
• Grass Roots Group (2016)
• Extrameasures (2016)
• NimbleCommerce (2016)
• Giftcards.com (2016)
• OmniCard (2016)
• DIDIX (2015)

Blackhawk Network also invested in Wogi (a digital rewards and incentive company) in 2022.

From this perspective, the acquisition of Tango Card aligns with previous Blackhawk Network acquisitions. Tango Card (more recently referred to as Tango) is also a payments, incentives and rewards company with an emphasis on gift cards. Tango has approximately 300 employees compared to Blackhawk Network’s approximately 2,500 employees. Since Tango offers similar products and services as Blackhawk Network, this may be viewed as an acquisition focused on market share.

It is worth noting that Blackhawk Network has applied for approximately 30 patents since 2021 (a marked increase in IP activity).

Blackhawk Network's CEO is Talbott Roche.

Competitors to Blackhawk Network may include Runa, InComm Payments, Alliance Payment Solutions, Yiftee, Reward Gateway, Global Payments, CleverCards, Card Assets and many others.

Tango Card was founded in 2009. The company had raised approximately $65M in growth equity (FTV Capital), debt (Western Technology Investment) and venture capital (Allegro Venture Partners, Floodgate, Innovation Endeavors, SWaN & Legend Ventures and Maurice Werdegar) prior to the acquisition. Tango Card's CEO is David Leeds.

Expect the pace of acquisitions and consolidation in Work Tech to increase in 2024.

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