What Will Alibaba Do With MoneyGram?

Moneygram International Inc MGI shares are up 9.0 percent on Thursday after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA payment affiliate Ant Financial agreed to purchase MoneyGram for $880 million. The merger is the latest step in Alibaba’s international expansion efforts. According to MoneyGram’s press release, the merger will connect MoneyGram’s 2.4 billion bank and mobile accounts with Ant Financial’s 630 million users, including 450 million Alipay users and 180 million Paytm users.

“The acquisition of MoneyGram is a significant milestone in our mission to bring inclusive financial services to users around the world,” Ant Financial CEO Eric Jing said of the deal.

Other Names In The Space

Alibaba is certainly not the only big-name tech stock making a big move into the mobile payment and electronic payment transfer space. After building a dominant market share, eBay Inc EBAY spun off Paypal Holdings Inc PYPL into its own entity in 2015. Both Apple Inc. AAPL and Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL have ventured out of their comfort zones with mobile payment platforms Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Even Facebook Inc FB has its own money transfer service integrated into its Messenger platform.

Politics

The timing of the MoneyGram acquisitions may be tied to Jack Ma’s recent pledge to President Donald Trump that he is committed to creating American jobs. Jing specifically addressed American job creation in the press release.

“We are committed to continuing to invest in MoneyGram’s workforce and growing jobs in the United States,” Jing noted.

Trump has threatened to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports, but he praised Ma for Alibaba's commitment to creating U.S. jobs.