LIGHTBRIDGE ACQUIRES AUTHORIZE.NET

Lightbridge, which primarily manages wireless customer transactions, acquired InfoSpace subsidiary Authorize.Net last week for $82 million in cash. The move is part of what CEO Pamela Reeve called an effort to branch out into new markets. Authorize.Net provides IP-based payment gateways for small to medium-sized businesses.

Reeve said her company has strengthened its balance sheet and right-sized itself, and has been on the lookout for the right opportunity to complement its transactional-based authentication, fraud protection and security services.

“Authorize.Net provides access to new markets and represents a key step in the execution of Lightbridge's strategy to diversify and grow our business,” Reeve said.

Authorize.Net rang up $27.8 million in revenue in 2003, up from $21.1 million in 2002, and boasts about 91,000 merchants using its payment services.

“These small and medium-sized merchants are an underserved payment processing segment and historically have not been full participants in e-commerce, but are increasingly looking to offer products online,” Reeve said.

The acquisition is a logical extension for Lightbridge, which wants to extend its fraud prevention and detection technology and capability into the wired world, said Yankee Group analyst Roger Entner. The $82 million price tag makes up approximately 70% to 80% of Lightbridge's cash reserves, he added. “So it had better be right,” Entner said. “They just raided the bank for it.”