Springboard Retail, a cloud retail POS that was very well anchored in the apparel retail segment, has been acquired by Global Payments. Below is the notice from March of 2020.
Dear Dealers,
I have exciting news to share. We have acquired Springboard, a cloud-based point-of-sale company. Springboard will soon be operating under the new brand name Heartland Retail. There are several reasons this is a winning change for all involved.
A Natural Fit
More than simply having compatible company cultures, Springboard Retail is a missing piece in Heartland’s business solutions puzzle. With this acquisition, we’ll be able to offer robust retail-centric solutions for customers of any size or service type. We’re so excited to bring this solution to our Dealer Sales Channel, where it will not only thrive but scale. More information on that to come.
Meeting Business Demands
We’ll be able to do this while still providing the quality service and installation that business owners enjoy from you, our Dealers, across the country. Customers have asked for a quality cloud-based retail POS solution, and we can now provide them with just that. Heartland Retail — as Springboard Retail will be called moving forward — is an omnichannel retail software provider already serving over 1,500 locations. Adding this product line will give us a streamlined way to meet the ever-changing needs of retail customers. Virtual Town Hall
There are no plans to dismantle the products, personnel or processes that are working well within Heartland POS today. In fact, Bill Fultz and I will be hosting a Town Hall webinar on Thursday, March 5th at 4:30 p.m. EST to share the host of exciting opportunities that are now at your fingertips. Click here to register for the Town Hall.
Again, I am grateful to have you as part of the Heartland Dealer Channel. I look forward to seeing our program, people and resources continue to produce combined success.
Sincerely,
Andre NatafSVP, Point of Sale
Springboard Retail is a great product, and it’s got a great founder and team. But given how Global Payments / Heartland has handled all things POS under the Global umbrella thus far, we worry for Springboard merchants, as well as the folks who built Springboard into what it was.
So the question we all need to ask is, how long until Heartland screws up Springboard Retail?
Look, on paper the acquisition made sense:
- Springboard Retail’s founder has been in the retail game a long time and probably wanted out
- Heartland has a sales channel to distribute the product and no retail POS to sell
- Heartland brings marketing scale and payments integration
But this is classic banker math, and why 90% of M&A actually fails to deliver results. Bankers get paid on the transaction, not on the result. Nobody seems to be considering:
- Management of multiple code bases
- A sales channel that finds the majority of resellers unmotivated to move product based on Heartland’s economics
- Culture of software vs payments
Until Global proves it knows how to make even elementary software decisions, this acquisition’s failure is a when as opposed to an if. We don’t care about the PR spin: we examine results to tell us what’s really happening. We know this is going to sound totally unfounded for a sterling and honest business like Global Payments, but we imagine the first “value add” for Springboard Retail merchants being some awesome fantasy fees and higher effective rates. #Bankervalue
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