NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 13, 2021--S&P Global Ratings today said that Visa Inc.'s (AA-/Stable/A-1+) termination of its $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid Inc. in response to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) civil antitrust lawsuit deprives the company of an attractive business diversification opportunity, but it will not have a major impact on Visa's financial position or overall creditworthiness. Visa and Plaid, an "open banking" technology company, announced on Jan. 12 that they have mutually terminated the transaction. Visa, which first announced the acquisition almost exactly a year earlier, said it wished to avoid "protracted and complex litigation" even though it believed it could have prevailed. The DOJ filed its suit in November 2020, alleging that Visa was
