Dive Brief:

• Shift4 has absorbed the Canadian company Eigen Payments, according to undated an online post on its website saying the two companies will work together to serve merchants.
• Shift4 will likely try to persuade Eigen customers to move to its platform, RBC Capital Markets Dan Perlin said in a Thursday note to his firm’s investment clients. “This is another acquisition that will run the Shift4 playbook,” he wrote.
• The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Dive Insight:

Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Shift4 has yet to officially announce the acquisition, Perlin wrote. Instead the company quietly updated its website to note Eigen is now part of Shift4. It is not clear when the merger was finalized or how much Shift4 paid to acquire Eigen. 

“Shift4 and Eigen deliver a robust end-to-end solution that combines every piece of the commerce experience under one roof,” Shift4’s website says. 

The U.S. payments company will likely add “fees to maintain the existing Eigen gateway and a small incremental fee on card transactions to encourage the Eigen merchant base to move over to Shift4's platform,” Perlin wrote.

Eigen’s customers include restaurants and hotels while Shift4’s clients include professional sports teams and entertainment venues such as football and soccer stadiums, the analyst said in the note to investors.

The Vancouver-based company works with “thousands of merchants,” Eigen’s website says, although it does not provide a precise figure. The company offers a range of services, including online ordering systems and point-to-point encryption that safeguard customer data, according to the data firm CB Insights.

Both companies have customers in similar sectors of the economy, Perlin said. “We note that Eigen's hospitality portfolio includes hotel and lodging, casinos and gaming, as well as large venues and stadiums, which signals meaningful overlap with [Shift4]'s hospitality and stadiums verticals,” he wrote in his note.

Perlin did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The merger is another move in a long line of foreign acquisitions this year as Shift4 looks to increase its international footprint and expand its customer base. In June, for example, the company said it bought a majority stake in the German point-of-sale supplier Vectron Systems. And in August Shift4 bought the Canadian gift card company Givex.

And Shift4 might not be finished. William Blair analysts last month said Shift4 is a good candidate to buy the Canadian company Lightspeed Commerce.