The ratings on Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) follows the announcement that FIS will acquire Milwaukee, Wis.-based Metavante Corp. (BB/Watch Pos/--) for approximately $4.4 billion. The merged companies had pro forma 2008 revenues of $5.2 billion and EBITDA exceeding $1.3 billion. In our view, the merged company will possess an investment-grade business risk profile, although we do not believe it will initially have the financial profile of an investment-grade company. Pro forma total debt to EBITDA is expected to initially be above 3x (excluding $260 million of potential synergies). FIS is a leading provider of core financial institution processing, card issuer, and transaction processing and outsourcing services. Its recent acquisition of eFunds gave FIS greater scale, extended
