Mastercard Acquires SessionM to Broaden its Merchant Loyalty & Marketing Services

 Mastercard (NYSE: MA) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire SessionM, a U.S.-based technology company. SessionM’s customer engagement and loyalty platform empowers the world’s most innovative brands—including retailers, airlines, restaurants and CPG companies—to forge stronger and more profitable consumer relationships.

The addition of SessionM will enhance Mastercard’s ability to help brands around the world deliver personalized, real-time offers and comprehensive campaign measurement based on robust, data-driven insights. Mastercard is constantly innovating and investing to bring fresh value to brands globally—helping them build and enhance their customer relationships and, ultimately, grow their business.

“Consumers' expectations about their experiences with brands are changing,” said Francis Hondal, president, loyalty and engagement at Mastercard. “We believe that the future of loyalty needs to be re-imagined to enable seamless digital experiences, and SessionM’s consumer-centric capabilities will help us broaden our value to marketers across sectors in exciting new ways.”

Many businesses are seeking to reinvent their loyalty programs to better serve increasingly digital consumers. SessionM helps brands create and manage consumer engagement and loyalty programs with industry-leading technology that powers a complete loyalty solution -- from data management to campaign execution to program measurement.

“SessionM shares Mastercard’s commitment to creating experiences that drive lasting loyalty and meaningful, impactful customer engagement,” said Lars Albright, co-founder and CEO of SessionM. “We look forward to joining the Mastercard family and to bringing our innovative technology to even more customers in more places around the globe.”

Over the past decade, Mastercard has made a number of investments to advance its data-driven services for retailers and other brands. This includes the acquisition of Applied Predictive Technologies, a test and learn analytics tool that allows brands to prove the real impact of marketing, product and other decisions. Mastercard has also expanded its market-leading consulting program and enhanced its marketing services, executing omnichannel campaigns on behalf of customers.

“With our suite of data-driven services, we aim to help our customers end to end – from advice to execution and everything in between,” said Kevin Stanton, chief services officer, Mastercard. “Our complementary technology and teams will help brands drive greater loyalty with both proprietary and card-based programs—reinforcing Mastercard as their partner of choice.”

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed and the transaction is anticipated to close in the fourth quarter.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  All statements other than statements of historical facts may be forward-looking statements.  When used in this press release, the words “believe,” “expect,” “could,” “may,” “would,” “will,” “trend” and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements.  Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that relate to Mastercard’s future prospects, developments and business strategies, as well as Mastercard’s acquisition and operation of SessionM’s business.  We caution you to not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as they speak only as of the date they are made.  Except for the company’s ongoing obligations under the U.S. federal securities laws, the company does not intend to update or otherwise revise the forward-looking information to reflect actual results of operations, changes in financial condition, changes in estimates, expectations or assumptions, changes in general economic or industry conditions or other circumstances arising and/or existing since the preparation of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of any unanticipated events.

Many factors and uncertainties relating to the proposed transaction, our operations and our business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control, influence whether any forward-looking statements can or will be achieved.  Any one of these factors could cause our actual results or the impact of the acquisition to differ materially from those expressed or implied in writing in any forward-looking statements made by Mastercard or on its behalf.  Such factors related to the completion and impact of the acquisition include, but are not limited to, whether all necessary conditions will be met, and whether the transaction will close on agreed terms and in a timely manner.

For additional information on other factors related to Mastercard’s overall business that could cause Mastercard’s actual results to differ materially from expected results, please see the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, and any subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K.

Contact:

Julia Monti | Julia.monti@mastercard.com | 914-217-9533

About Mastercard

Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.

About SessionM

SessionM is a customer engagement and loyalty platform empowering the world’s most innovative brands to forge stronger and more profitable customer relationships. The platform scales for the enterprise, globally. SessionM is headquartered in Boston with offices around the globe. For more information on SessionM, visit www.sessionm.com.